On Sunday, August 6, a human rights website reported that eight kolbars (porters) were wounded by the Iranian regime’s border forces in Kermanshah province. One of the porters was killed and another suffered critical injuries.
The victims were from the cities of Paveh, Javanrud, and Salas-e Babajani. The body Asu Karimi, 39, who was killed in the incident, was found in one of the gardens around the village of Shushmi, near the Iran-Iraq border.
Porters transport goods on their back across the border for wealthy merchants and owners of large capitals throughout the year in exchange for a very meager salary, barely enough to make ends meet and put food on the table of their families. Their feet are swollen, their backs are bent and their bones ache. They have been forced into this physically demanding and exhausting job out of desperation and the regime’s neglect toward their plight and needs. Presently, the Kurdistan region is suffering from severe poverty and unemployment.
And yet, if the hardships were not enough, the porters of western Iran also have to face the suppression of the Iranian regime. The Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian regime’s security forces regularly attack porters and target them with live ammunition under the pretext of cracking down on trafficking and smuggling. Meanwhile, the real smugglers who have ties to the regime remain unencumbered in their illicit trade.
A group of civil society activists and porters in Paveh announced that they will hold a rally in front of the governor’s building in protest to the attack of the porters. A large group gathered in front of Paveh’s morgue to protest this criminal act.
Security forces abducted the body Asu Karimi under the pretext that there is no coroner in order to bury the body secretly and prevent protests from taking place.
Why are the regime and the oppressive agents so decisive to kill these breadwinners of the house? What security threats do the porters pose to the regime that they get shot and killed by the bullets which they are paid by the suffering and money of this people? Why do the Revolutionary Guards and the most vicious forces kill porters?
There is no doubt that one of the main reasons behind these killings is the great interests the IRGC and drug cartels and fuel smuggling cartels gain from this route. Hence, the regime’s interest is to control border crossings in areas such as Sistan and Baluchestan in the east, Kurdistan, Ilam and Kermanshah in the west.
Therefore, the killing of porters is part of a financial and security project for the regime. This criminal act takes the lives of hundreds people and thousands affected by this crime. This is something that other senior officials do not care to hide.