IRAN’S clerical regime has been accused of escalating violence against impoverished kolbar  — porters hired to carry goods across borders — after security forces opened fire on a group in the south-east Sistan & Baluchistan province.

The Kolbarnews Telegram channel reported that two kolbars were injured in Friday’s attack and were taken to nearby hospitals by local people.

The porters tend to come from Kurdish areas that have suffered a lack of investment, with high unemployment and lack of development and infrastructure.

About 500,000 kolbar are dependent on transporting goods — legal and illegal— including tea, spices and tobacco, which are then sold for high prices in Tehran.

They are paid poorly and are at high risk of attack by government forces.

In 2018 then Interior Ministry Deputy Officer for Security Huseyin Zulfukari was condemned for issuing a statement saying the kolbars are smugglers whom officers “need to kill.”

In 2019 at least 70 kolbars were killed and 165 injured by Iranian military forces or natural disasters along their trade routes, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).