ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian border guards killed a young Kurdish border porter and father of two near Iran’s Kurdish province’s border with Turkey after firing three shots to his head, according to a report published by a human rights organization on Thursday.
Rasul Qalandari, 21, father of two children aged three years and five months, was killed by Iranian border guards in the border area near his home village in Qatur district of Khoy, West Azerbaijan province in northwestern Iran (Rojhelat), according to a report received by the Hengaw Human Rights Organization on Wednesday.
Sources reported that the border forces initially fired at a group of border porters without prior warning, injuring Qalandari and killing him after firing three shots to his head while he was lying on the ground.
Border porters, known locally as kolbars, carry untaxed goods - including coffee, fabric, tea and even auto parts - on foot across the mountainous and heavily militarized border along Turkey and the Kurdistan Region, earning minimal wages despite significant risks.
The trade sees a majority-Kurdish employment among poor and low-income border residents on the Iranian side, who have been issued a limited number of work cards by the government.
In recent years, economic desperation in Rojhelat and widespread unemployment, compounded by the rampant inflation and continued devaluation of the Iranian rial, have driven many more to the trade.
Rights groups have repeatedly documented cases of Iranian border forces opening fire on unarmed kolbars, resulting in deaths and injuries each year, and have called on Tehran to end the use of lethal force against border porters.
Earlier this month, Iranian border guards shot and killed another Kurdish kolbar, Zanyar Iran Nazhad, near the border village of Dereki in the Hawraman border area, according to Hengaw.
The watchdog also reported that two other kolbars were killed in July near the Shushmi border area in Kermanshah province and the Veyseh border crossing in Iran’s Kurdistan province.
Since the beginning of 2026, nine kolbars have been targeted by direct gunfire from Iranian forces, leaving five dead and four injured.
The organization said the lower number of cases compared with previous years reflects reduced border activity during border closures linked to the 40-day war and subsequent regional escalations.
