{"id":242117,"date":"2026-08-09T14:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/242117\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T14:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:05:18","slug":"ashtara-zero-day-group-claims-responsibility-for-killing-basij-singer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/242117\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ashtara Zero Day\u2019 group claims responsibility for killing Basij singer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro-Iranian-regime singer and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 Basij<\/a> paramilitary force member, Hamidreza Rajabzadeh, was abducted and killed, according to Iranian state media, last week.<\/p>\n

Two weeks after he went missing, Rajabzadeh\u2019s family reportedly received a video showing him being tortured and killed, which was subsequently circulated on anti-regime channels, according to the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency. His body has not yet been returned, according to the reports.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s police and the IRGC<\/a> have given differing accounts of the motive behind the killing. Fars reported that the group \u201cAshtara Zero Day\u201d had begun paying individuals affiliated with the Mojahedin-e Khalq, a dissident group also known as the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, and supporters of the Pahlavi monarchy<\/a> to abduct and kill IRGC officials.<\/p>\n

However, Deputy Interior Minister Aliakbar Pourjamshidian said this morning that the investigation was ongoing, while police said they were still determining whether the Basij member\u2019s death had a \u201cterrorist\u201d motive.<\/p>\n

The Jerusalem Post was able to locate the channel said to be affiliated with the group. In one video, Rajabzadeh appears to be unconscious, with someone spitting on him. Text overlaid on the video warned that the group had the names and addresses of Basij members and informants.<\/p>\n

An earlier video showed a man allegedly identified as Rajabzadeh being carved with a knife. The caption read: \u201cHamid Reza Rajabzadeh is a Basij and a suppressor who both raped and killed our people in January<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBasij bastard, that\u2019s all you guys are; soon I will post more videos from the Ashtara Zero Day group who are monitoring many people in different cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cA special gift was deposited to these friends via digital currency and Bitcoin to fight better and stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier videos show a man tied up and blindfolded, as well as several buildings and sites affiliated with the regime being set alight.<\/p>\n

Four people have been arrested in connection with the killing, with one reportedly confessing to carrying out the act after being paid by a foreign \u201cterrorist\u201d group.<\/p>\n

In response to the murder, semi-official outlets such as Tabnak have demanded that the judiciary speed up the prosecution of those who demonstrated in January, claiming that doing so would prevent those opposed to the regime from having \u201cthe opportunity to rebuild, establish contacts, and launch new operations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pro-Iranian-regime singer and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 Basij paramilitary force member, Hamidreza Rajabzadeh, was abducted and killed, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[2140,34,11363,11346,424,5755],"class_list":["post-242117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-basij","tag-iran","tag-iranian-protests","tag-iranian-revolutionary-guards","tag-irgc","tag-kidnapping"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117065935899067854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}