A Kurdish kolbar, 17 year old Farooq Alizadeh from Rabat, Sardasht, was shot dead by Iranian border guards at the Hengazhal border in Baneh, Hengaw Human Rights Organisation reported on Sunday. This incident adds to a series of attacks by Iranian forces against Kurdish porters, known as kolbars, who regularly face dangerous conditions in transporting goods across the mountainous Iran-Iraq border.
The Islamic Republic’s armed forces shot Alizadeh at 2.00 am while he was porting goods, dying instantly. In the Baneh region, seven kolbars have been killed in the past two months, and ten teenage kolbars were injured in November alone. The majority of the incidents occurred at the Hengazeal border.
Similarly, Yavar Veisi, a 27-year-old kolbar from Paveh, Kermanshah province, was fatally shot by Iranian border guards near the Nosud border crossing on the same evening. Veisi, a father of two and a football enthusiast, was reportedly unarmed and not carrying goods when he was shot.
Iranian authorities label kolbars as ‘smugglers’, a designation contributing to their harsh treatment. However, human rights organisations argue that kolbar activities provide a vital means of income for Kurds struggling to survive with limited economic opportunities in impoverished border regions.
The plight of kolbars, targeted by border guards while undertaking long treks in difficult terrain, reflects broader themes of economic hardship and human rights violations in the Kurdish-inhabited border areas spanning Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Statistics shared by the Hengaw organisation revealed that 594 kolbars have been killed and 1,364 injured by Iranian border guards over the past 12 years. Among these, 36 were under 18 years old.
This situation mirrors the ‘Roboski Massacre’, in which a Turkish Armed Forces’ airstrike, purportedly a mistaken attack, struck a Kurdish kolbar caravan, killing 34 individuals, among them 17 children, on 28 December 2011 in Uludere (Roboski), Şırnak (Şirnex), Turkey.
Kolbars, engaging in activities driven by economic necessity, have also been labelled as smugglers by Turkish authorities and consequently targeted by military operations.