Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) – Although the commander of NAJA Border Guards had made a statement in the media that they clearly distinguished Kolbars from some of the profiteers of smuggling goods would always support the hard labour, many kolbars and border tradesmen are stilled killed daily by the forces under the command of this high-ranking commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Mosleh Ghoraishi
Following the systematic killing of Kolbars at the Kurdistan border, a Kolbar from Namnjeh village of Piranshahr known as Mosleh Ghoreishi who was previously wounded by the shooting of the Iranian border guards died after 20 days of hospitalisation at Orumiyeh Hospital due to the severity of his injuries on Nov 5, 2018. He was married with two children. This Kolbar and another Kolbar Jabbar Barshan were both shot by the border guards and seriously injured on Oct 16, 2018.
Moreover, early in the morning on Nov 8, 2018, a Kolbar from Sardasht known as Younis Ebrahimi from the village of Ziwe of Sardasht in the border areas of beytoush collapsed and died when escaping into mountainous areas in an attempt to save himself from being shot by the border guards.
Targeting Kolbars is not limited only to the border guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran. On Oct 31, 2018, Turkish army forces targeted and wounded a young Kolbar Hamid Brookymilan at the Chaldoran frontier.
Killing of Kolbars continues despite the statement made by Hossein Zolfaghari, the Deputy Minister of Political and Security Affairs in an interview with ILNA News Agency. “Changing the regulations in Iran means that we do not have something called Kolbar. I do not know the origin of this word which has caused problems for both the people and the authorities.”, he had said.
