Ridha al-Rikaby was hit in the head by a bullet on Friday when followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr clashed with young demonstrators in Nasiriyah's Habboubi Square, medics told AFP.
His death on Monday brought Friday’s number of dead to eight, with dozens wounded. Thousands turned out for a funeral march in honour of Rikaby, according to the news agency.
Nasiriyah has been a hotspot for demonstrations since nationwide mass protests overwhelmingly made up of young people demanding jobs, services, and action against corruption began in October 2019. Over a year on, protestors who once marched side-by-side by with Sadrists are vocally expressing their sense of betrayal.
“How are you demanding the future prime minister be from the Sadrist movement, but you don’t allow a 20-year-old to ask for their legitimate rights,” Mohammed Abbas told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz on Sunday, pointing his fingers at an image of Muqtada Sadr, who tweeted last week that he would like a member of his party to be the country’s next premier.
“They burnt 80 of the tents, but, God willing, we will rebuild them with bricks,” Haidar Hussein, a protester speaking of the Sadr supporters, told Rudaw on Sunday. “We won’t go back [off the streets], because we haven’t got our rights yet.”
“We are here to ask for everyone’s rights against the parties that destroyed Iraq,” he added.
“We are people who are peacefully protesting for our legitimate rights, but this government is corrupt, them, and the parties,” said another protestor by the name of Karar Ahmed the same day.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi sent senior officials, including National Security Advisor Qasem al-Araji to the southern city on Monday for talks with protesters.
The PM, who came to power after his predecessor resigned following the mass protests, has scheduled elections for June 2021. Meanwhile, Sadr, whose candidates are expected to do well at the ballot box, continues to rally his supporters.
"All the demands you have left, you will be able to achieve them through elections and your active participation in the process, in order to achieve what you want and no longer let people who disregards our values rule this place," the cleric tweeted Monday night.
More than 600 people have been killed and around 18,000 injured in clashes between protesters, security forces, and pro-Iran militias, according to Amnesty International.
Human rights groups and protestors alike have decried the seemingly little Kadhimi’s government has done to hold perpetrators of violence against protestors accountable.
With reporting by Yasmine Mosimann and Dilan S. Hussein
