Iranian Border Forces Shoot Dead Kurdish Kolbar at Bastam Border

Hemin Ahmadi, a 45-year-old Kurdish kolbar, was shot and killed by Iranian border forces at the Bastam border on May 1. 

According to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Ahmadi, a father of an 8-year-old girl, was transporting goods across the border when he was fatally shot. 

Hengaw reported Ahmadi was struck at close range (one meter) by a Kalashnikov bullet to the stomach near his heart. 

Kolbars are porters who haul goods on their backs and feet over long distances across Iran's borders, mostly in the impoverished, mountainous Kurdish areas adjacent to Iraq. 

According to the Kolbar News website, a total of 85 kolbars lost their lives while transporting goods in the western provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah between March and September 2023. 

The causes of their deaths include direct fire by military forces, blizzards, cold weather, and falls from mountains and heights.