The situation remains tense in a village in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province where security forces opened fire on protesters demanding employment at a nearby gold mine.
In recent days, villagers of Agh-Dareh in Takab district held rallies to protest the non employment of locals at the gold mine of the same name.
The unrest took a dramatic turn on July 30, when the special police forces reportedly launched an attack on the village and opened fire on the demonstrators.
Three men identified as Nasser Bahramian, Hojjat Momenzadeh and Armin Nikzad were seriously injured in the violence and were rushed to hospitals in Urmia and Zanjan for medical treatment.
More than 50 other ethnic Kurds have been detained, and there is currently no information regarding their whereabouts.
According to human rights activists, the village is now surrounded by forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
With a production capacity of two tons of gold per year, the Agh-Dareh gold mine is the second-largest in Iran.
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