A seven years old child has been shot dead by Iranian police in Charuymaq district of West Azerbaijan province, in the northwest, on 19 January.
Reportedly, the police opened fire on a moving vehicle and shot Mizgin Palangi, who was in the vehicle, in the head.
After the news of the incident was widely reacted to on social media, security officers pressured and threatened the child’s family not to speak to the media about it.
Additionally, on 24 January, security forces arrested Kamal Palangi, the victim’s father, during his daughter’s funeral in the village of Molla Hassan in Maku, West Azerbaijan province.
Earlier, the media had reported the location of the incident as Zanjan province, but then the deputy chief of operations of the Zanjan police told state media that no shootings had taken place in the province in the past month.
However, law enforcement officials in East Azerbaijan province have, so far, remained silent.
An informed source on Palangi’s killing spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said: “At 14:00 [local time] on Wednesday, 19 January, a Peugeot 405 car belonging to a Kurdish civilian who was travelling to Tehran to visit a relative was followed by the police on the Tabriz-Zanjan highway near the city of Hashtrud in West Azerbaijan province due to missing vehicle documents.”
According to the source, despite having information on the passengers of the vehicle, the police fired directly at it on the Hashtrud-Qara Aghaj road.
They shot at least 15 bullets at the body of the vehicle, one of which hit the 7-year-old Palangi in the head. She lost her life on the spot while her sister, Falak Palangi, was wounded by her leg.
The source further stated that after the child was killed, the police took her body to a hospital in Qara Aghaj, in Charuymaq. Two days later her body was transferred to the department of forensic medicine in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan province.
Eventually, on 22 January, the body of the child was returned to her family. She was buried in her hometown in Molla Hassan village of Maku.
