Amini, an Iranian Kurd, died on Sept 16, 2022, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules for women.

The intelligence organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad province suspended five social media pages and arrested the six individuals behind them, it said, according to official news agency IRNA.

IRGC accused them of “organising riots and driving insecurity on the internet”, the statement said without identifying the suspects.

“The individuals were active during last year’s riots and have criminal records,” it added.

“Concurrent with attempts of the enemies to create chaos on the anniversary of last year’s riots, the administrators of these five social media pages were planning gatherings to create disturbances in the coming days.”

Demonstrations across Iran in the months that followed Amini’s death saw hundreds of people killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested in connection with what officials labelled as foreign-instigated “riots”.

The latest arrests came days after the IRGC’s intelligence body and Tehran’s intelligence ministry announced they had “identified and dealt a blow” to a “riot-organising network that was being financially supported by the US State Department”.

Members of the alleged network were accused of attempts “to prepare and present an agenda for rioters to revive the atmosphere of tension and disturbance”, according to a joint statement issued on Wednesday.