close button
Switch to Iranwire Light?
It looks like you’re having trouble loading the content on this page. Switch to Iranwire Light instead.
Features

Kolbar Shot Dead in the Mountains of West Azerbaijan

September 6, 2021
OstanWire
1 min read
Kolbar Shot Dead in the Mountains of West Azerbaijan

A recent spate of killings of kolbars in western provinces of Iran has continued. This week yet another man earning a living by transporting goods across the Iran-Iraq border was shot dead by the Revolutionary Guards.

According to Kurdish human rights sources, Mohammad Khalid Abdalahzadeh was killed on the evening of Sunday, September 5. Officers opened fire on him in the heights of the Haji Imran border in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province. The 41-year-old is understood to be a father of two whose body has not yet been returned to his family.

The Iranian regime still calls kolbars “smugglers” and border guards regularly shoot at these impoverished citizens of Iran’s border regions while they are in the mountains. In 2020, at least 59 kolbars in western Iran are known to have lost their lives while 181 were injured in the course of their work.

Related coverage:

Two Kolbars Hospitalized After Border Guards Open Fire

Four Iranian Kolbars Shot and Killed in a Fortnight

They Shoot Kolbars, Don't They?: An IranWire Film

Iranian "Kulbar" Workers Shot Without Warning by Border Guards

Women Kulbars: A Deadly Job in a Beautiful Landscape

Imprisoned Editor: Kolbars Signify the Collapse of Iran’s Economy

"Kolbars are the Result of Prejudice": Interview with Jamshid Bahrami

An Anthropologist's Take on the Kolbari Phenomenon

#Don’t_Kill_Kulbars Twitter Storm Takes Over Iranian Cyberspace

comments

Baha’is of Iran

New Details Emerge on Shock Arrest of Baha'i Designer

September 4, 2021
Maryam Dehkordi
6 min read
New Details Emerge on Shock Arrest of Baha'i Designer