Six Porters Killed and Wounded by Iranian Border Forces’ Gunfire Over Past Two Days

Human rights media reports show that over Sunday and Monday, one porter was killed as a result of direct gunfire from Iranian border forces, and five others were wounded.

According to these reports, yesterday “following direct fire by military forces in the border areas of Sardasht,” Ibrahim Soleimanzadeh, a 37-year-old porter from a village in that region, was killed. Also, on Sunday, five porters “in the Nousud border areas” were wounded as a result of gunfire by border personnel. According to the report, the shooting of porters occurred “without prior warning” and the porters were targeted with buckshot ammunition.

The Hengaw human rights organization, which covers reports of human rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, had previously reported that over the past calendar year, 52 Kurdish porters were killed by gunfire from border personnel, four of whom were under 18 years old.

According to the report, during this period, 163 porters were also wounded in gunfire by border forces, and of the total 140 shooting incidents resulting in death or killing of porters, 134 occurred by Iranian armed forces and 6 were carried out by the armed forces of Turkey and Iraq.

The situation of porters in the Islamic Republic of Iran over past years has become a human rights crisis.

Iranian government officials consider porter smuggling a form of contraband trafficking, but many critics and activists, pointing to poverty, widespread unemployment, and existing inequalities, describe porter smuggling as the only way to “survive” for a group of citizens.

A plan for regulating porter smuggling was announced to the Islamic Consultative Assembly in late Farvardin of last year, but so far no news of its review and approval has been published.

Source: Radio Farda