Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces have shot dead Seyyed Ahmad Esmaeili, a Kurdish man from Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, and refused to hand over his body to his family.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Esmaeili was travelling by motorcycle from Bukan towards Shahin Dezh in West Azerbaijan Province on the evening of 28 July when forces from the IRGC Intelligence Organisation and the Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohada Base ambushed him on the road.
IRGC forces shot him dead and transferred his body to an undisclosed location. They have yet to hand it over to his family.
The Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohada Base, headquartered in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province, and responsible for confronting forces affiliated with Kurdish opposition parties in West Azerbaijan and Kurdistan provinces, subsequently issued a statement regarding the incident.
The statement did not identify Esmaeili but published a photograph of his body and said he had been killed during a joint operation by the IRGC Intelligence Organisation and forces from the base.
An informed source in Orumiyeh told KHRN that, in recent years, the bodies of many members of Kurdish opposition parties killed in confrontations with IRGC forces in West Azerbaijan Province had been taken to an area within the IRGC’s Al-Mahdi base in Orumiyeh and secretly buried there.
According to the source, security forces have recently been ordered to shoot and kill members or supporters of Kurdish opposition parties at the scene if they observe any activity by them, without seeking authorisation from judicial officials.
The order reportedly applies to the IRGC Intelligence Organisation, the Ministry of Intelligence and the Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohada, Beit ol-Moqaddas and Nabi Akram bases in West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces.
