Zakho – A resistance fighter of the HPE was arrested on Tuesday in northern Iraq´s Kurdish town of Zakho. Sabah Ibrahim, a student at the Technical Institute of Zakho, had joined the HPE (Ezidkhan´s Protection Force, formerly HPS) under the leadership of Heydar Shesho in August 2014 when the terrorist militia Islamic State conducted a campaign of genocide against the Ezidis in Shingal. According to confirmed reports, Ibrahim was arrested by security forces of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
The HPE leadership has not commented on the incident yet as Ibrahim´s whereabouts remains unknown. Authorities have not provided any information on the arrest of Ibrahim whose family suspects political motives behind his arrest.
The ruling Kurdish KDP party has been constantly making arrests in its conflict with the Ezidi HPE. In April 2015, KDP security forces arrested the HPE supreme commander Heydar Shesho who, even after the intervention of German authorities, was not released until several days later. Other resistance fighters of the HPE, which the KDP considers as an “illegitimate militia”, as well as Ezidi activists are from time to time being put under pressure and arrested by KDP security forces in Zakho and Dohuk region.
Ibrahim who went to Shingal just one day after the genocide in order to defend the people who were trapped in the mountains is a hero to Ezidis. An Ezidi actvist referred to his arrest as a “blow to all freedom fighters”.
ezidiPress
