Iran
says arrests 4 suspects in prosecutor's killing
January
19, 2010
KHOY,
Iranian Kurdistan,— Iran has arrested four suspects
in the
killing of a prosecutor
in an attack which a judiciary official said may
have been carried out by Kurdish guerrillas, Iranian
media reported on Tuesday.
Vali Haji Gholizadeh, prosecutor in the northwestern
city of Khoy in a region bordering Turkey, was shot
dead in front of his home on Monday night.
"So far, no group has claimed responsibility for
this terrorist act," provincial judiciary chief
Mohammad Ali Mousavi was quoted as saying by ISNA
news agency.
"But in view of the threats and plans the PJAK group
had announced previously, it is probable that this
group is involved in the assassination," he said.
Iranian security forces often clash with guerrillas
from the Iranian Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK),
an offshoot of the Turkey Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
which took up arms in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in
southeast Turkey.
Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey all have significant
ethnic Kurdish minorities. Estimate to 12 million
Kurds live in Iran, mainly live in the provinces of
West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah.
Iran sees PJAK, which seeks autonomy for Kurdish
areas in Iran (Eastern Kurdistan) and shelters in
Iraqi Kurdistan border provinces.
The PJAK, or the (Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistane) (Party of Free Life of
Kurdistan),www.ekurd.netis a militant Kurdish nationalist group based in northern Iraq that
has been carrying out attacks Iranian forces in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and other Kurdish-inhabited areas.
Since
2004 the PJAK took up arms for self-rule in Kurdistan province northwestern of
Iran (Iranian Kurdistan, Eastern Kurdistan). Half the members of PJAK
are women. The PJAK has about 3,000 armed
militiamen.
The United States on February 4, 2009 added the Iranian Kurdish PJAK militant group
opposed to Iran
to its list of terrorist
organizations.
Khoy's governor, Ebrahim Mohammadlou, said four
suspects had been arrested in connection with
Monday's assassination.
He said the city's prosecutor appeared to have been
killed by "hostile anti-revolution groups", the
semi-official Mehr News Agency added.
The assassination took place six days after a
remote-controlled bomb killed a university scientist
in Tehran. Such incidents are relatively rare in
Iran, which borders volatile Afghanistan, Pakistan
and Iraq.
Iranian officials have blamed the United States and
Israel for the bombing attack that killed the Tehran
University Professor,www.ekurd.netMassoud
Ali-Mohammadi. The United States dismissed the
allegation of U.S. involvement as absurd.
An Iranian opposition website said he was a
supporter of opposition leaser Mirhossein Mousavi.
Copyright,
respective author or news agency, Reuters | Agencies
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