Salah Khoshnamak, 18, from the village of Do Mal in Marivan County, was killed on the evening of Monday, July 6, 2026, when Islamic Republic border forces opened fire on him in the Visheh border heights, HANA Human Rights Organization reports.
Information verified by HANA shows that Salah Khoshnamak was carrying goods along the border paths when border guards fired directly at him.
Sources close to HANA say the shots came without warning and from close range. He died at the scene from his wounds.
This marks the second kolbar killed by border force gunfire in four days. Vazir Rahimi, 57, married and the father of five, from the village of Mansour Aghaei in the Shahu district of Ravansar County, was killed in similar fashion at the Nosud border crossing in the early hours of Friday, July 3, 2026.
Extending its condolences to Salah Khoshnamak’s family, HANA Human Rights Organization holds that the continued use of firearms against kolbars runs counter to the principles of necessity and proportionality governing the use of force, and stresses that the relevant authorities bear responsibility for carrying out an independent, impartial, and effective investigation into the shooting. HANA also calls for those responsible to be held accountable, for the victim’s family to be compensated, and for concrete steps to end the use of lethal force against kolbars, people who, lacking other work and faced with dire economic conditions, have been left with little choice but to risk the border regions to earn a living.