UN Experts Urge Iran to End Killings of Kurdish Kolbars and Baloch Sukhtbars

A group of United Nations human rights experts has called on Iranian authorities to immediately end the use of lethal force against Kurdish border couriers (kolbars) and Baloch fuel carriers (sukhtbars), describing the killings as unlawful and demanding independent investigations into every death caused by security forces.

GENEVA – Iranian authorities must end the use of lethal force against Kurdish border couriers and Baloch fuel carriers, UN experts* said today, calling the measures unlawful and calling for independent investigations into every death caused by security forces.

“The Kurdish border couriers known as kolbars and Baloch fuel carriers known as sukhtbars, are among the most economically marginalised people in Iran, carrying goods and fuel across border areas with few other means of supporting their families,” the experts said. “They must not pay for that poverty with their lives.”

At least 12 kolbars have reportedly been shot dead by Iran’s border forces or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps since the start of 2026. In the last two months, the experts received reports of seven kolbars killed by direct gunfire from Iranian border guards, at close range and without warning. Several were reportedly carrying no goods when they were shot.

Among them was Madeh Kermani, 44, who left his home in Marivan on 28 July and did not return. He was reportedly shot while carrying nothing, and his body was removed from the area. The authorities told his family he had died falling from the border heights – but these claims were contradicted by forensic records showing that he had been shot in the head.

Milad Tabad, 28, died on 18 August 2026, almost a year after border guards reportedly shot him in the head. He spent months in intensive care before his family, unable to afford his continued care, took him home to nurse him themselves.

“Even where individuals are suspected of transporting goods in breach of customs law, this poses no threat to life and can never justify the use of firearms,” the experts said.

Baloch sukhtbars have faced a similar pattern of lethal attacks. At least 13 fuel carriers were reportedly killed between January and August 2026 in connection with shootings, pursuits and other actions by military and security forces.

While national and international attention has focused on the protests and the executions that followed, deaths at Iran’s borders pass largely unnoticed. Iranian authorities do not publish any official statistics on the deaths of kolbars or sukhtbars and the task of counting the dead has been left to families and civil society groups.

These killings form part of a broader pattern of reported unlawful killings by Iranian security forces: the killing of protesters in December 2025 and January 2026, extrajudicial killing by security forces in heavily militarised provinces, and deaths in custody.

“Each of these deaths engages Iran’s obligation to conduct a prompt, independent and impartial investigation,” the experts said. “Families are entitled to truth, accountability and reparation – and these communities are entitled to livelihoods that do not put them in the line of fire.”