On Wednesday, January 20, 2022, a 7-year-old girl named Mazgin Leopard was shot dead by police in the car of a Kurdish citizen from Mako in the town of Charavimaq in East Azerbaijan Province. Following the widespread publication of this news on social media, the family of the killed child was pressured and threatened by the security agencies for not informing about it. Also on Monday, February 25, Kamal Palangi, the father of the child who was killed during his son’s funeral in the village of Mullah Hassan in Mako, was arrested by security forces.

Earlier, the media reported the location of the child in Zanjan province, after which the deputy chief of operations of the Zanjan police command told state media that no shootings had taken place in the province in the past month. So far, however, law enforcement officials in East Azerbaijan Province have remained silent.

An informed source told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network about the killing of the child: “Tabriz to Zanjan near the city of Hashtrood in West Azerbaijan Province was pursued by police due to lack of car documents.”

According to this source, despite being informed of the condition of the occupants of the vehicle on Hashtrood-Qara Aghaj road, the police patrol fired directly and after hitting at least 15 bullets on the body of the vehicle, one of the occupants of the vehicle, a 7-year-old leopard, was shot. His head was killed on the spot and his other sister, Leopard Sky, was wounded in the leg.

The source further stated that ‌ After the child was killed, the police transferred his body to a hospital in Qara Aghaj, Charavimaq city, East Azerbaijan province, and two days later to the forensic medicine in Tabriz. Finally, on Saturday, February 23rd, the body of this child was handed over to his family and he was buried in his birthplace in Mullah Hassan Mako village.

The source concluded by reporting that pressure had been put on the child’s family and that his father had been arrested: “Kamal Palangi, the child’s father, was arrested by security forces on Monday, February 25, at his son’s funeral in the village.”