Iranian border guards kill a Kurdish kolbar, injure two others: rights group

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — One Kurdish kolbar was killed and two others injured Saturday by Iranian border guards in Khoy,  West Azerbaijan province, according to a rights group.

“Iranian security forces shot a group of kolbars in Lower Blasour, Khoy... in the early hours of Saturday, causing the death of a kolbar and the serious injury of two others,” according to a report by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which tracks violations against kolbars.   

The deceased was named in the report as Luqman Chwargosha, and the injured as Mansour Chwargosha and Maysam Mohammedi. 

Father-of-two Kaywan Kawsari was also killed after falling from a mountain in Bana, according to the monitor. 

Kolbars are semi-legal porters who transport goods across the Kurdistan Region-Iran border. Many are pushed into the profession amid high unemployment, particularly in Iran’s Kurdish provinces. 

Rudaw English interviewed two kolbars last week who spoke about the dangers of their trade. 

"Since corona has gotten serious in Iran, we've been out of work and our lives have been turned upside down. There is nothing else for me to do, so I do kolbary," one kolbar said before he set off through the rugged mountains.  

Monitors estimate around 70,000 people, mostly Iranian Kurds, make a living as kolbars. It is a risky job – with mountain passes rigged with landmines and patrolled by Iranian border guards.

An estimated 237 kolbars were shot by Iranian border guards in 2019, according to Hengaw. 

In the same period, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network recorded 245 incidents that either killed or injured kolbars trekking goods over the border, in which 56 died and 153 were wounded.

Another 23 kolbars froze to death in the mountains, drowned in rivers, or fell from cliffs.