A Tajik border guard was killed and several others suffered injuries in an armed clash on the border with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan’s law enforcement source told TASS on Wednesday.
"One Tajik border guard was killed and several others were wounded in an armed conflict on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in the Vorukh District (the Sughd Province - TASS) on Wednesday morning," he said, adding that those injured had been taken to the hospital.
According to earlier reports, a shootout erupted on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border near Tajikistan’s Kekh border post at 7:15 am. The country’s State Committee for National Security said in a statement that Kyrgyz border guards, without any reason at all, had shelled the Tajik border post, using a mortar, machine guns and other firearms. Tajik border guards returned fire, the state committee noted, adding: "Talks are currently underway between the parties’ border services in order to stabilize the situation and establish the reasons behind the provocative actions of the neighboring country’s border agencies."
The Kyrgyz Border Service, in turn, said that two service members of the country’s State Committee for National Security had suffered wounds in the shootout on the border with Tajikistan. According to Kyrgyzstan, Tajik border guards crossed an undocumented sector of the border in the Bulak-Bashy area of the Batken District in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken Region on September 14 and "took up combat positions." In response to Kyrgyz troops’ demand to leave the territory, Tajik border guards opened fire and a shootout ensued.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there have been dozens of disputed segments of the 980-kilometer-long Tajik-Kyrgyz border. The two countries have so far delimited and demarcated more than 660 kilometers of the border. Disputes and conflicts between locals and border guards crop up from time to time in certain border regions.
