SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — An Iranian Kurdish human rights and political activist was killed near the border town of Penjwen.
“Last night, the dead body of activist Iqbal Muradi, a political activist and member of the Kurdistan Human Rights Group and from East Kurdistan, was found near the village of Aliyawa in Penjwen,” Zana Abdulrahman, Penjwen mayor, told Rudaw on Wednesday morning.
Abdulrahman added the body had been discovered shot with three bullets and an investigation into the incident has launched.
Muradi is the father of Zaniyar, a political prisoner in Iran.
Initial suspicion for the murder has been cast on Iran. Kurdish groups that regularly operate in the border regions between the Kurdistan Region and Iranian Kurdistan, usually blame such attacks on Iranian agents.
This year, there have been a string of attacks against high-ranking Iranian Kurdish political officials and activists in the Kurdistan Region.
The major armed Kurdish political parties opposed to Islamic Republic have announced this year that they aim to improve their communication between and push toward larger Kurdish population centers in Iran.
The opposition parties regularly clash with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.