HRANA News Agency – Two Kulbars with the names of Borhan Alam Holou and Mostafa Mehrpoor were killed by border patrol in Chaldoran border and three others were severely injured.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), 5 Kulbars and residents of Shot village were injured or killed by direct fire from border patrol forces.

A close source to these Kulbars told HRANA’s reporter, “These civilians were living by being a Kulbar, but were killed or injured by the police’s direct fire on Chaldoran border”.

This informed source said, “Borhan Alam Holou (Alam Holy) and Mostafa Mehrpoor were killed by direct fire and three others were severely injured. All were residents of Shot village, rural of Chaldoran and Makou.”

Kulbars (Carriers) are the people who are forced to carry goods for living, and carrying goods across the borders by passing mountains from unofficial custom points, in return to very low wages. Most of Kulbars are from West-Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces.

These goods are identified by Iran law as contraband and therefore people who are involved in carrying these goods, whether by using animals or just carrying them on their back, are smugglers.