Mehrdad Malek was killed by security forces on December 26, 2022.
Iran's law enforcement has killed another teenager by erratically targeting a car in Qazvin Province according to social media reports.
1500 Tasvir, a Twitter account dedicated to the news of protests in Iran, reported that Mehrdad Malek a 17-year-old teenager was killed Monday evening after police patrol officers shot him in his friend’s car in Datshtabi region in Qazvin province about 200 km west of Tehran.
“Mehrdad and his friend were driving home when police patrol became suspicious of them and started chasing them,” said 1500 Tasvir, adding that the patrol officers started shooting at the car after their own vehicle got stuck in mud during the chase, presumably to prevent the two suspects fleeing the scene. Mehrdad died on the spot after one of the bullets hit him.
Very little is known about the details of the shooting or the reason the police put up a chase to the car. Authorities have not made any comments about the deadly shooting yet.
On Sunday another child was shot dead in her family’s car in Hormozgan Province. Soha Etebari, 12, and her family were on the road to Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan, from Bastak in Hormozgan Province when plainclothes security forces started shooting at the car at a checkpoint. Soha died of her injuries on the way to the hospital.
The police claim they suspected drug trafficking because the vehicle’s windows were dark. The incident happened on the eve of the 40th-day memorial of Kian Pirfalak, the 9-year-old boy who was shot dead in Izeh, Khuzestan on November 16 during an evening of protests.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization says at least 476 people including 64 children and 34 women, have been killed by security forces after the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.