According to the Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Watch (IKHRW) report, the deception, abduction and transfer of Iranian Kurdish underages to the camps of the PJAK terrorist group is a bitter story that dates years ago while it does not seem to end. The recruitment of the underages, their deception, and finally the fact that even the bodies of these people are not delivered to their families, prove the authoritarian and deceiving nature of PJAK.
Hundreds of Iranian children have been kidnapped by the group and they never returned home. The latest case of abductions by PJAK is Jamal Arash from Yola Galdi town, affiliated to the city of Shot, West Azerbaijan province. A town near Irano-Turkish border where most of the people are engaged in kolbari, illegally carrying goods through the border. Ignored by the government, deprived of development and other issues historically, Yolagaldi has choses Kolbari as the main income source. A job with no stable future. The Kolbars are either targeted by the military for illegally crossing the border or their property is confiscated and their lives are threatened for not paying ransom to PJAK and other terrorists.
“Due to stress, I really do not know the exact date of my son’s being abducted,” Jamal’s father, Abdul Rahman, told the IKHRW in an interview. “He has been away home for a year. I also went to PJAK camps on the Irano-Turkish border to find him, but I was both threatened and insulted. Instead of respecting our right to look for Jamal, PJAK members laughted at us while disrespecting me, Jamal and our mother. They did not answer our questions about Jamal either. Jamal was mentally ill and had problems. He told us that he would go to Tehran to work with his brother. Unfortunately, his brother has not returned home since six years ago. I’m sure they havejoined PJAK. The tricky story of travelling to Tehran is being developed by PJAK to prevent families from pursuing.”
“Jamal’s brother’s name is Murad and he is older than Jamal,” Jamal’s father told the IKHRW. PJAK members kidnapped Murad while he was sixteen years old. This crime of PJAK led to a chaos in famil, three small children and a mother who cries day and night for Jamal and Murad while getting sick and depressed. What should I do if I follow Jamal and Murad? I am alone and I have no one, and this was the greatest injustice that PJAK committed against us. The group kidnapped my two sonsin six years. They destroyed my life.”
It is worth mentioning that the FIRAT News Agency, affiliated with the PKK/PJAK, had recently claimed that there were no child soldiers in this group and that the underage members were no longer in the organization, but the news agency has been and is silent on the fate of the previous child soldiers.
