DUSHANBE, January 17, 2015, Asia-Plus — Kyrgyzstan State Border Guard Service has reported one of its guards was killed and two wounded in an attack on a border post near the frontier with Tajikistan, Radio Liberty reports.
Border guard spokesperson Gulmira Borunbayeva said the Aykol border post in Batken province was attacked during the late evening of January 16.
The person killed was tentatively identified as the post”s commander, Lieutenant T. Ismailov.
The two wounded border guards were taken to a hospital in the town of Isfana.
Kyrgyzstan”s deputy border guard chief Iskender Mambetaliyev was already in Isfana also to help local forces investigate the attack.
Borunbayeva said security is being tightened along the border as police and border guards search for the assailants.
Many sections of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border are still not demarcated and there have been violent incidents in recent years usually sparked by land disputes between Kyrgyz and Tajik villagers.
However, the Kyrgyz Internet news agency Turmush reported the Aykol border post is some 11 kilometers away from the Tajik border and another Kyrgyz news agency, 24.kg, cited Mambetaliyev as saying the Aykol post was new and located some 25 kilometers from the Tajik border.
