ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish Kolbar was shot dead by Iranian security forces in Baneh, Iran’s western Kurdistan province early Sunday, while another is in critical condition, a human rights group told Rudaw English.
Saadun Ahmadi (27) came under fire from Iranian security forces along with other kolbars early Sunday morning at Baneh, Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported.
“Saadun was shot dead and was also buried this morning, however another Kolbar is in the intensive care unit of Salahadin Ayubi hospital in Baneh,” Hengaw's director Arsalan Yarahmedi said to Rudaw English.
The incident comes just two days after a Kurdish kolbar died at Iran’s Kermanshah province on Friday after remaining in a coma for five days due to a bullet in his head from Iranian border guards.
Basir Ahmedzadeh (27) and his brother were shot on Monday in Nowsud, Kermanshah province in western Iran. Ahmedzadeh suffered a gunshot to the head and went into a coma as a result of the injury, dying five days later, Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported on Saturday.
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 are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, particularly in Iran's Kurdish provinces.
Families of kolbars are among the main victims of these attacks by Iranian border guards, as the transport of goods is their primary source of income.
Video footage shared by KHRN on Twitter late last month appears to show border guards raiding the houses of kolbars and confiscating their belongings.
Amnesty International addressed the brutal treatment kolbars face in their 2020 human rights report released in April.
“Iran's border guards continued to unlawfully shoot scores of unarmed Kurdish kolbars who work, under cruel and inhumane conditions, as cross-border porters between the Kurdistan regions of Iran and Iraq, killing at least 40 men and injuring dozens of others,” the human rights watchdog said, sourcing Kurdish human rights organizations.
An estimated 52 kolbars were killed and 147 injured in 2020, according to data given to Rudaw English by the KHRN. Forty-six of those killed were shot by Iranian or Turkish border guards.
The KHRN in their monthly report said that three kolbars had lost their lives in border areas in May while 10 were wounded.
