Iran's health ministry on Monday urged those injured in recent protests to go to hospital, after rights groups reported that security forces have been detaining demonstrators wounded in a violent crackdown.
Protests broke out in late December over economic grievances, but turned into a mass movement against the country , with huge street demonstrations for several days from January 8.
Rights groups have accused authorities of killing thousands in an unprecedented crackdown under the cover of an ongoing internet shutdown, while Iranian authorities say the violence was caused by "rioters" spurred by the United States and Israel.
"Our advice to the public is that if they suffer any kind of injury, they should not try to treat it at home, and they should not worry about going to medical centers," the health ministry said in a statement carried by state television.
Rights groups have accused Iranian security forces of firing rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets directly at protesters' heads and torsos during the crackdown and then raiding medical centers and homes to identify protesters from their wounds and arrest them.
"Some wounded individuals were detained before receiving medical treatment, others during treatment, and some immediately after discharge, and were transferred to unknown locations," the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a Friday report.
Amnesty International last week reported a young man, Amirhossein Ghaderzadeh, was arrested after security forces raided his home and stripped him and his sisters -- one of them a minor -- naked to search for injuries related to the protests.
The 19-year-old was arrested after he was found to have pellet wounds, according to sources speaking to Amnesty.
The General Directorate of Prisons of Tehran Province denied on Monday that injured "rioters" were being taken to prison instead of medical centers, the judiciary's Mizan website said.
Iranians speaking to AFP outside the country said protesters who were injured were often too afraid to go to hospital because police were there and that doctors had been treating people at their homes.
An image shared on social media but not immediately verifiable by AFP shows three women in a home working with the help of a cellphone flashlight to remove almost two dozen pellets from a prone woman's back.
On Sunday, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the ousted shah who had called for people to take to the streets, echoed the reports of security personnel "embedded" in hospitals to arrest protesters.
He called on Iranians to "document the names of those who obstruct the treatment of the wounded" so that "at the appropriate time, their crimes and acts of betrayal may be addressed".
