Kian Pirfalak, a 9-year-old boy killed by security forces in Iran

Kian Pirfalak, a nine-year-old boy, was murdered on Wednesday night by attackers riding motorbikes during some of the worst violence to occur in Iran in two months of protests. The family of the boy has accused security forces of carrying out the crime.

One of the seven victims of gunmen in the western city of Izeh was Kian Pirfalak, along with a woman and a 13-year-old kid.

According to a report by the official IRNA news agency, authorities put the killings attributable to “terrorists” who “took advantage of a gathering of protestors… to open fire on people and security officers.”

Eight persons were hurt, according to IRNA, including three police and two Basij paramilitary fighters who are linked with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

However, a guy representing himself as a family member claimed that security personnel were to blame for Kian’s death in an audio recording tweeted by Radio Farda, a Persian radio station funded by the US with a Prague studio. “He was being shot at by the Islamic republic’s corrupt government as he travelled home with his father. The man can be heard saying in the recording, “Their car was attacked from all four sides. On Instagram, a similar accusation was made.

The boy’s body was apparently brought to the family house in ice because the family was concerned that if he had been transported to the morgue, as has happened in several other occasions, the security forces would have seized his body.

On Wednesday, protesters said that Basij paramilitary force members were acting erratically around the city.

Ali Karimi, an Iranian football player who lives in the United Arab Emirates and supports the demonstrators, said on social media: “Kian! We will take back Iran!”  Iranian actor Kataneh Afshar Nejad released video of herself on Instagram sans a hijab denouncing Pirfalak’s passing.

In a separate attack hours later in Isfahan, two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Basij members, killing two and injuring two others, according to the Fars news agency.

One protester was killed in Bukan on Thursday, while two more were killed in Sanandaj, where mourners were honouring “four victims of the popular resistance” 40 days after their deaths, according to the Oslo-based Hengaw rights organisation.

The phrase “death to the tyrant” was chanted by protestors as they marched down a street lined with bonfires in Sanandaj on Thursday. According to IRNA, Hassan Youssefi, a police colonel, was killed in the city after being repeatedly stabbed.

Security forces are alleged to have killed at least 10 people over a 24-hour period amid protests in the cities of Bukan, Kamyaran, Sanandaj, and Amini’s hometown of Saqez, according to Hengaw late on Wednesday.

Security forces opened fire on people at a Tehran metro station on Tuesday, sparking the start of three days of new violence.

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