Human Rights Organization: 52 Porters Killed in Iran Over the Past Year
A human rights organization announced in its annual report on human rights violations in Kurdish-populated areas of Iran that during 2021, at least 163 porters and peddlers were injured and 52 were killed in these regions.
The website “Hengaw,” which reports on human rights violations in Kurdish-populated areas of Iran, reported on Friday, December 31, that four of the killed porters and two of the wounded were under 18 years old.
According to the report, over the past twelve months, “140 direct shootings” were carried out against these porters, with “134 incidents by Iranian armed forces” and “6 incidents by Turkish and Iraqi armed forces.”
Based on multiple reports, border guard forces in Iran have repeatedly targeted porters with deadly shootings. A number of residents in Iran’s border provinces have turned to porterage due to poor economic conditions.
Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president, had said on October 7 that transporting goods in the form of smuggling or by porters is “not an issue” and intelligence agencies should identify “mafia operations,” “hidden hands,” and “organized smuggling.”
The Hengaw report also referenced the execution of 38 Kurdish citizens in Iran over the past year. In addition to the execution of Haidar Ghorbani, a political prisoner, execution sentences have been carried out on one woman and one defendant who “was sentenced to execution as a juvenile,” as well as execution sentences in “31 cases for the charge of intentional murder and 16 persons also for charges related to drug offenses.”
Source: Voice of America
