Iranian border forces kill kolbar Rasoul Qalandari with three shots to the head

Hengaw – Thursday, July 23, 2026

Iranian border forces killed 21-year-old Kurdish kolbar Rasoul Qalandari from Qatur (Kotol) after first wounding him in the border highlands near the village of Baljouk in Khoy County. Hengaw has learned that officers approached him as he lay injured on the ground and shot him three times in the head.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the incident took place on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, when Iranian border forces opened fire without warning on a group of kolbars in the border highlands near the village of Baljouk in Qatur District, Khoy County.

Hengaw's sources reported that Qalandari was wounded in the initial gunfire. Border officers then approached him as he lay injured and defenseless on the ground and fired three shots into his head.

Qalandari, 21, was married and the father of two young children, aged three years and five months. As the family's sole provider, he had turned to kolbari to provide for his family.