Security forces detain Kurdish cleric, four civilians in Oshnavieh

Iranian security forces have detained a Sunni cleric and four Kurdish civilians on 12 July in Oshnavieh, West Azerbaijan province, in a new wave of arrests of Kurdish activists and civilians in various cities of Kurdistan.

On 13 July, security forces arrested Mollah Mohammad Tahazadeh, the imam of a mosque in the village of Bimzorteh; Faran Ebrahimi, a member of the village council; and Abdorrahman Sadeghi, the village head.

These civilians were taken to an undisclosed location.

Reportedly these individuals were arrested after a speech by Abdorrahman Ghasemlou, the secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), was played through the speaker of the village’s mosque on the 33rd anniversary of his assassination.

Simultaneously, security forces detained two other Kurdish civilians named Khoshnaw Eini and Farhang Karamat from the village of Sengan in Oshnavieh.

According to the statistics collected by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), at least 18 Kurdish clerics, activists, and civilians have been arrested by the security forces in the cities of Piranshahr, Oshnavieh, and Baneh in the last 10 days.