Islamic preacher found dead in Iraqi Kurdistan capital: police

2019-11-22 00:00:00 - Source: Iraq News

Islamic preacher Yousif Ahmed Sheikh Bzeni found dead in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan on November 2019. Photo: SM

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— A Kurdish Islamic preacher was found dead in iraqi Kurdistan region’s capital, Erbil, on Thursday, police said.

Erbil Police Spokesman Hogir Aziz told NRT that the body of preacher Yousif Ahmed Sheikh Bzeni was found in an uncompleted building at the Zanyari apartments in Erbil city.

Police have launched investigations into the incident, he said. “The cause of his death is still unclear,” he added.

The preacher, who was also a university teacher in Kirkuk, visited Erbil on Wednesday for government works.

The preacher’s brother said the forensic department in Erbil had informed them that the preacher had fallen from the building.

“We don’t know if he was killed or fallen,” his mother told NRT reporter in Kirkuk.

The preacher was a resident of Kirkuk city. He was a preacher and Mullah at the Haji Asi mosque in the city of Kirkuk.

This is not the first time an Islamic preacher was attacked by an armed group in Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

In November 22, 2016 Gunmen shot and killed Islamic preacher Dr. Hoshiar Ismail at his home in Erbil. Ismail, linked to the moderate Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), was a preacher at a mosque in Erbil, he also had a TV program on the KIU’s satellite channel Sped TV.

Islamic preacher Nadir Kurdayee, a preacher at the Mullah Qader Mosque in Erbil, was attacked by a group which he stated were security forces in March as he left the mosque following prayers.

In 2017 an Islamic preacher Hazim Sideeq was shot dead in Qaladze as he was leaving the Friday prayer service in the city, north of Sulaimani in Iraqi Kurdistan.

In June 2017 an explosion hits Sulaimani’s Bahasht mosque in Iraqi Kurdistan where Dr. Abdul Latif, a controversial Islamic Salafi preacher was preaching, at least five people have been injured.

Iraq News Now