JURF AL-SAKHAR, Iraq — Capturing the Euphrates Valley farming town of Jurf al-Sakhar was arguably the Iraqi government’s first big success in reclaiming territory from Islamic State militants.

But when they expelled the militants in late October, the Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces and their allied militias also drove out the last of the town’s civilian residents — about 70,000 Sunnis. The town’s representative on the provincial council was its lone Sunni member, and he was found dead with a bullet through his forehead not long after the battle.

Now the all-Shiite provincial council has barred any of the displaced Sunni residents from returning for at least eight to 10 months and possibly longer. The council says security forces need time to clear explosives left behind. But some former Sunni residents do not believe it.

“There are concerns this could be ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Jurf al-Sakhar and the Baghdad belt,” said Maysoon al-Damluji, a lawmaker from a secular-Sunni political bloc.