Non-Protesting Truck Driver Shot Dead at Lanaz Refinery; Family Rejects KRG Narrative

Peregraf – A 25-year-old truck driver from Kirkuk was shot dead during Sunday’s protest outside the Lanaz Refinery on the Erbil–Gweir road, in an incident that has sharply intensified public anger and raised questions about the conduct of security forces.

The victim, identified as Erfan Bahadin, was a resident of Kirkuk, a father of a two-month-old infant, and a hired driver for the Ghalia Company. His relatives insist he had no connection to the protest organized by residents of Lajan village near the refinery, who have been demonstrating for days to demand employment opportunities at the facility.

According to his father, Erfan was caught in the unrest only because the road was blocked by the demonstration. “When tensions rose, he stepped out of his truck to move away from the area, but the Lanaz Refinery Asayish shot him,” the father said.

He added: “He was killed by the refinery’s Asayish gunfire. I personally received his body from the forensic doctor; a Dushka round hit his forehead and exited the back of his head.”

The grieving father said Erfan was renting a home and deeply in debt. “I married him off with a loan. They just had a baby two months ago. I have three video footages of evidence—one clearly shows someone ordering the Asayish, ‘Shoot him.’ My son was not a terrorist. Why did they shoot him with a Dushka?”

These claims contradict the statement issued by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s Ministry of Interior, which on Saturday described the unrest as “external agitation and internal sedition.” The ministry attributed the fatality to gunfire from “those individuals,” saying the demonstrators themselves caused the death of a citizen.

Residents of Lajan village, located near the refinery in the Khabit district of Erbil, have protested repeatedly in recent days, blocking the passage of oil tankers toward the city. The villagers, most of whom belong to the Harki tribe, say authorities promised them employment opportunities ahead of the recent Iraqi parliamentary election but have since “gone back on their word.”

When the demonstration continued on Sunday, tensions escalated at the refinery gate. Security forces and refinery guards attempted to disperse the crowd with heavy gunfire, according to demonstrators, leading to Erfan’s killing. Protesters insist the shot that killed him came from refinery Asayish, not the crowd.

At a press conference, Erfan’s father complained that “until now, no representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government has come to offer me condolences—they haven’t even called me.” He demanded that the relevant institutions ensure that “my son’s blood does not go in vain” and that the killer, who he says “is known,” be arrested.

Erfan’s wife, holding their infant, also spoke to the media during the funeral. “He didn’t have a pistol or anything. He was standing next to his car, waiting for the demonstration to end so he could return. He was a street vendor on that road; he had gone out to earn 15,000 dinars,” she said.

Responding to the ongoing demonstrations, the KRG Ministry of Interior stated, “We will no longer allow the good intentions of the institutions of the Kurdistan Region to be taken advantage of, and a limit will be placed on these destructive acts. To stop these kinds of disturbances, troublemakers will be dealt with according to the laws in force in the Kurdistan Region, and no one is above the law.”