Despite the announcement that the manoeuvre of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) (known as Muharram 2) in Shaho mountain areas of Kamyaran has finished, the IRGC troops, are planning to build new bases in the Protected Area of Shaho while taking tight security measures in addition to harassing villagers and environmental activists. It is noteworthy that this manoeuvre was widely criticised by environmental activists.

According to reports received from villagers around Shaho Mountain, following the last stage of (Muharram 2) manoeuvre with the presence of 20,000 Corps troops in different cities of Kurdistan, the IRGC troops have continued to to take tight security measures around the villages of Palangan, Tangier, Kashtar, Tilcho, Lun Sadat, Lun Kohan, Kalati and Takht Zangi.

According to the villagers around Shaho Mountain, IRGC troops have deployed a large army of troops in these areas on the pretext of holding a security manoeuvre. As a result, the villagers who have been breeding livestock and carrying out beekeeping for years in these areas have been harassed by IRGC forces.

One of the environmental activists in Kamyaran, who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, has told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that “The holding of this security manoeuvre in Shaho Mountain is only an excuse to cover the new IRGC programs in the protected mountainous of Shaho.”

According to this source, IRGC been destroying a large part of the Shaho Mountains in the past few weeks to allegedly build a large missile defence centre in this area as claimed by villagers.

The source added that IRGC has threatened environmental activists over the past few weeks while announcing that no one had the right to travel to this mountainous region until further notice and disclosing any information about the Shaho environment issues would lead to their arrest.

It should be noted that IRGC has destroyed a wide part of these areas known as protected areas by building military bases in the mountains of Shaho and Kosalan in addition to carrying out massive military operations in these areas on the pretext of fighting the forces of the Kurdish parties.