ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian security forces on Friday shot dead a Kurdish porter (kolbar) near the Kurdistan Region border, reported a human rights watchdog.
Wazir Rahimi, 57, was killed near the bordering village of Shushmi of Nowsud district in Kermanshah province, western Iran (Rojhelat). The area borders the Kurdistan Region, according to the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
The rights group also reported that Rahimi was shot at close range without warning by Iranian border guards early Friday morning.
His body was taken to the forensic medicine department in Kermanshah's Paveh county. As of Friday, authorities had not returned his remains to his family, KHRN said.
Kolbars are porters, most of them Kurds, who carry goods on foot across the mountainous and heavily militarized border between Iran and the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, often for meager wages. Rights groups have repeatedly documented cases of Iranian border forces opening fire on kolbars, resulting in deaths and injuries each year. Kurdish human rights organizations have long called on Tehran to end the practice of shooting at unarmed porters and to hold those responsible accountable.
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