Local Citizens Protest in West Azerbaijan

A group of citizens from the town of Boukan on Friday gathered in front of the Governor’s Office in protest to the murder of a young girl and several child abduction cases.

A local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that on the afternoon of Friday, 20 April, a group of Boukan citizens in the Kurdish-populated West Azerbaijan Province held a protest gathering in front of the Governor’s Office to protest the lack of official investigation into the murder of a young girl and several other child abduction cases in Boukan.

According to the local source, on Thursday, 19 April, several days after her disappearance, the body of a young girl, Somayeh F., was found under the Amirabad Bridge in Boukan. The Boukan Medical Examiner’s Office determined that she had been murdered several days earlier. In addition, the news of several kidnapping cases of children in front of their schools was recently publicized, which also saw little government attention.

During the gathering, security and police forces in Boukan were stationed throughout the city on full alert. The protest gathering ended without any confrontation. Citizens gathered in the crowd, which was later attended by the Governor, demanded security for their town and punishment for the murderers of the young girl.