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Several porters in Iran’s western border region, particularly Kurdistan province, have been murdered or injured by state security forces (SSF), revolutionary guards (IRGC) and border guards in recent weeks.
On 25 October, two porters were wounded after border guards shot them between the cities of Baneh and Piranshahr.
On 18 October, the father of two Amin Shams was killed in the Chaldean border area of western Azarbaijan province by SSF units who opened fire on a group of porters.
On October 17, a porter was wounded in Baneh after border guards started shooting at a group of porters.
On 13 October, three porters were injured when border guards opened fire on them.
In total, including several incidents not listed here, at least 12 porters were killed or injured in October as regime forces started shooting at them. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
On 8 September the state Jahane Sanaat The newspaper reported that nearly 15 porters died in the border regions of Piranshahr and Sardasht in the previous two months, even though they were in areas where “transit was previously free and legal”.
The commanders of these forces defend the brutal and often deadly attacks on porters with the unsubstantiated claim that they only target those who break the law, but even if that were true, is death the real punishment for smuggling into Iran? No of course not.
Summary of repression and human rights violations in Iran – October 2020
The porters, carrying heavy loads over dangerous terrain, take on the job due to lack of economic opportunity – the result of the regime’s disastrous policies – and barely make ends meet. They are clearly not doing anything illegal or would make more money. However, the regime is trying to kill them.
Border guard chief Ahamd Ali Goudarzi even claimed that his forces were protecting the porters, but from what? Go home to their families?
Regime officials are trying to disguise the state-sanctioned murder when it is obvious that the regime is deliberately killing the porters to protect the regime-run illegal smuggling operation.
In fact, some $ 30 billion worth of contraband goods are being moved from Iran to neighboring countries, but it is mainly the shifted state borders and customs that the security forces control.
In fact, just a few days ago, 17 trucks full of smuggled medicines worth hundreds of millions of dollars were delivered to Iraq across the same border where the porters were killed.
“Such institutionalized smuggling is carried out primarily through the country’s underground and unofficial economy, largely by state organizations, military and security institutions, especially the IRGC and entities affiliated with the office of the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, “the National Council of the Iranian Opposition of the Iranian Resistance (NCRI) said.
These are the most corrupt sectors under the mullahs’ rule… Such institutionalized corruption allows various types of corrupt individuals to plunder and rob billions of dollars of Iran’s income and wealth, ”the statement added.
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