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By Momen Zellmi:
Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 30th April 2014. The elections were to decide the 328 members of the Council of Representatives, who will in turn elect the Iraqi President and Prime Minister. Meanwhile in the Kurdistan Region, there were also Provincial elections to elect the 90 provincial members from Irbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dhok. At midnight, while people were busy counting the votes – and the Islamic parties, and especially members of the Islamic Group (Komal/KIG), were happy with the initial results – everything changed with this breaking news from the Payam satellite channel: “Four members of the KDP Asayish have killed a guard at the Irbil center of the Kurdistan Islamic Group”.
Qasim Aziz
The official website of the Kurdistan Islamic Group states that, “The killed guard of the Islamic Group Center In Irbil is Mohammed Aziz – Qasim. He was born in 1975 and joined Islamic parties from 1995. He was married in 1998 and has a son and three girls.”
Abdulstar Majid, head of the KIG Politburo in Irbil, announced that, “There were four killers and (we identified) one of their cars … and all of their identities and mobile numbers are in our hands”.
“We could kill all of them at once but we didn’t do that because that would be bad for Kurdistan security”, he added.
People have published their opinions about this case on Facebook, generally describing the case as terrorist and called the perpetrators mafia. Soran Omar, a member of parliament, has written that: “This case is terror and the killers should be judged by the Terror Law “ .
Islamic voters have displayed their anger against the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and security forces of Irbil; they believe that the killing of Qasim Aziz is because of the increased vote of the Islamic Group in Irbil, while Salim Shushkaiy, candidate No. 2 of the Orange (Komal) List, came first in Irbil province elections for the Iraqi Parliament.
Payam Satellite, the official channel of Komal, has publish a video of the killing of Qasim Aziz which was captured by security cameras at the Komal center.
Bas News, a website close to the KDP, has claimed that the case is due to ‘social problems’ and has no connection to political matters, and the police in Irbil announced that there were two killers, not four.
But, full of anger, Ali Bapir, leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Group, announced that, “We will never agree with anything , Blood is Blood”.
Ali Bapir added that, “There is no difference between blood of this brother with any member of the KIG Politburo, even my blood”.
After visiting Ali Bapir, KDP politburo member Fazel Mirani Skrteray told a press conference that, “Three of the defendants were arrested, let the court decide and we announce that they are members of KDP but they did this assassination without any plan”. He added: “In KDP culture there is no enmity with Komal, especially not Mamosta Ali Bapir, it is a red line for us”
This news is all over the media in Kurdistan. In general people are waiting for the decision of the Irbil court. Will it come to Ali Bapir’s “Blood is blood” or will they lead the case in another direction?
The video:
Momen Zellmi is an analyst/reporter and has a Masters in English Literature
