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PJAK claims responsibility for the assassination of Khoy’s prosecutor

19 January 2010 15:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Suleyman Ferzeliyev-APA. Iranian authorities arrested Tuesday four people belonging to the separatist Kurdish group PJAK over the assassination of a prosecutor, APA reports. Two gunmen opened fire on Vali Haji-Gholizadeh, the prosecutor of the northwestern town of Khoy, outside his house late on Monday, and he died of his wounds in hospital. The Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), a Kurdish militant group based in Iraqi Kurdistan, claimed it carried out the attack, local government official Fakhrali Nikbakht told the (Mehr) News agency. "Unfortunately the hostile and terrorist group of PJAK claimed responsibility for the assassination of Khoy’s prosecutor," Fakhrali Nikbakht, a local interior ministry official, was quoted as saying. Four men were arrested on Tuesday, but no details have been given about their identities. PJAK, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, is closely allied with the Turkish Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community." APA reported. Northwestern Iran, which has a sizeable Kurdish population, has seen deadly fighting in recent years between Iranian security forces and PJAK members as well as other Kurdish rebels operating from bases in neighboring Iraq.