ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A kolbar was shot dead by Iranian border guards near the border with the Kurdistan Region, a human rights watchdog reported on Saturday.
Iranian border guards “indiscriminately fired upon a group of kolbars,” killing 35-year-old Peyman Ahmedi, according to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
The shooting occurred near Nowsud in Kermanshah province along the border with the Kurdistan Region. This is the first recorded death of a kolbar in the Iranian new year that began this week.
Ahmedi’s family is yet to receive his body, Hengaw reported.
Kolbars are semi-legal porters who transport untaxed goods across the Kurdistan Region-Iran border and sometimes the Iran-Turkey border. They are constantly targeted by Iranian border guards and are sometimes victims of natural disasters.
Many kolbars are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, particularly in Iran's impoverished Kurdish provinces.
In its annual report on human rights violations in Iran for 2023, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network said that a total of 29 kolbars died last year. At least 19 of them were killed by Iranian border guards.
Hengaw estimated 33 kolbars lost their lives and 176 others were wounded as a result of direct fire from Iranian forces in 2023 and at least 35 fell victim to accidents.
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