Death of a Kolbar Due to Shooting by Islamic Republic Forces and Continued Detention of Citizens in Paveh and Urmia

Human rights sources have reported the death of a kolbar following gunfire from Islamic Republic forces and the ongoing detention of citizens in the cities of Paveh and Urmia. According to the human rights organization "Hangaw", Erkan Balavaseh, a kolbar from the village of "Jalileh" in the Marivan district, was killed on Thursday evening, June 21, as a result of direct fire from Islamic Republic border forces in the border mountains of "Tehteh" in "Sarvabad". The report states that this 29-year-old kolbar had no goods with him at the time of the shooting. According to Hangaw, the body of this kolbar was buried on Friday, July 1, in his birthplace. So far, a large number of kolbars in Iran's border areas have been killed and injured due to gunfire from Islamic Republic forces. Armed forces of the Islamic Republic, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have targeted hundreds of kolbars and traders over the past decades under the pretext of "fighting smuggling". Recently, the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Urmia sentenced a Kurdish kolbar named Idris Ali to death on the "fabricated charge of espionage for Israel". According to the Iran Human Rights Organization, this kolbar, who was involved in alcohol smuggling, was subjected to "physical torture" and became a "victim of the false case-making by the Ministry of Intelligence". On the other hand, according to Hangaw, intelligence agents in the city of Paveh, Kermanshah province, have violently arrested at least four residents of this city named Zana Saidi, Arash Ebrahimi, Shwan Ahmadi, and Maqdad Balebzani in recent days. No information has been published regarding the charges or the place of detention of these individuals. The continued detention of a sportswoman from Boukan has also been reported. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, three weeks after the arrest of Afsaneh Shahi, a 32-year-old mountaineer from Boukan, she remains in the detention center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Urmia. According to the report, the IRGC agents arrested this Kurdish citizen on June 1 by storming her family home without presenting a judicial order. Afsaneh Shahi has been denied the right to a personal visit and access to a lawyer, and no information has been published regarding her charges. Her cousin, Jafar (Dara) Amini, was also arrested by IRGC intelligence forces in Boukan on June 26. The U.S. State Department reported in its annual report in May of this year that the human rights situation in Iran has worsened, mentioning "violence or threats of violence against ethnic groups, including Kurdish and Baluch minorities" by the Islamic Republic. The organization "Front Line Defenders" has called for the immediate release of Taher Naqvi, a detained lawyer, and highlighted the continuation of the Islamic Republic's "intimidation policy" in Europe. Two Iranian dissidents are on the "assassination list" of a suspect in the Netherlands. The uncertainty surrounding Hooman Seyedali and Reza Arabpour, detainees from the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests, continues, as well as the deaths of two child kolbars and the injury of 43 others at the Iran-Iraq border over the past year.