ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian border guards on Saturday killed a Kurdish border porter, also known as kolbar, on the borders of Baneh in Iran’s western province of Kurdistan, a rights watchdog reported.
The kolbar has been identified as Tayeb Rostami, 34, from Baneh city.
“Iranian border forces opened direct fire on him at close range in the city's border area,” the Oslo-based human right group Hengaw reported Saturday.
The rights watchdog further stated that security forces shot Rostami “with a Kalashnikov rifle at close range and without any prior warning.”
Rostami was married and had one child and his wife is currently pregnant.
Kolbars are porters who transport goods across Iran’s mountainous western borders, often using hazardous mountain routes to earn a living amid limited employment opportunities in the predominantly Kurdish regions.
According to a UN report last month, at least 12 kolbars "have reportedly been shot dead by Iran’s border forces or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps" since the beginning of this year, adding that such "deaths at Iran's borders pass largely unnoticed."
Rostami’s death comes as Iran has acknowledged that its border guards shot and killed five men in July and August identified by human rights organizations as kolbars. Iran’s judiciary in a joint statement with the Iranian High Council for Human Rights said the shootings were part of operations against smuggling and unauthorized border crossings. The statement was issued as a response to a UN human rights report on the matter.
The daughter of one of the Kurdish kolbars killed in July disputed Tehran’s account of her father’s killing. She told Rudaw that her father was fatally struck by the first bullet, contradicting Iran’s claim that officers fired 28 shots, including warning shots, before a bullet ricocheted and killed him.
“My father was killed by the first shot. The remaining shots were fired to create the impression that warning shots had been given,” Soma Rahimi said on Tuesday, adding that this account was also presented before a court.
“Please do not shoot him. He is an innocent and harmless kolbar, and he is carrying nothing,” Soma also recalled two other guards on duty at the time pleading with their colleague who fired the shot.
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