ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) security force on Thursday evening stormed media outlet Chawder cultural institute in Sulaimani city, and a guesthouse in Khanaqin district, both owned by Mala Bakhtyar, a senior PUK leader.

“A commando force at 5pm today… stormed the office of politician and intellectual Mala Bakhtyar, as well as the Chawder cultural institute… The force let the guards of the Chawder institute go, confiscating the entire facilities in the building,” announced the institute in a statement. 

The institute of Chawder “condemned this action” and considered it a “dangerous development against the freedom of writing, and free speech…”

Shortly after the incident, the PUK finance department defended their actions in a statement, saying all the stormed buildings belonged to the PUK.

They said that the entire facilities used at the Chawder institute “belonged to the PUK” and added that the owner of the institute - Mala Bakhtyar is “no longer associated with the PUK.”

After shutting Chawder down in Sulaimani, a commando force left to Khanaqin.

A well-placed local source told The New Region on the condition of anonymity that a PUK commando force raided a guest house of Mala Bakhtyar in the village of Mekhas, Khanaqin district on Thursday evening. 

“The force who came in the village warned the guesthouse guards that they must leave the place, saying the place was a PUK property,” the source said, adding the PUK force eventually took over the guesthouse and expelled the guards.

And in a video message, Mala Bakhtyar directly accused PUK President Bafel Talabani of storming his cultural center, newspaper, and house. 

Speaking to The New Region on Thursday, Director of Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy Rahman Gharib condemned the act.

"We will not remain silent about this, the people of Sulaimani should not," he said, defining it as an "attack on freedom".

Before the PUK held its fifth congress in 2023, which Mala Bakhtyar refused to take part in, he was a member of the PUK Supreme Political and Interests Council. 

Mala Bakhtyar and the current PUK president Bafel Talabani have at recent times maintained rocky relations with the former repeatedly accusing the latter of monopolizing power and mismanaging the party.

Talabani and Mala Bakhtyar on a few occasions met after the former was elected president of the PUK, but the meetings, according to the latter, never bore fruit.

“The sons of Mam Jalal have taken power through a coup, conspiracies and plots,” Mala Bakhtyar said angrily after his offices and institutes were stormed. 

He warned that “they must not … do whatever they want to do. I will not remain silent if they commit this crime. I have hundreds of people with me.”