QUGHON TEPPA, January 26, 2015, Asia-Plus – Four Tajik border guards, who are being held hostage in Afghanistan, have not yet been released, Abdujon Tavakkalzoda, the head of Khatlon’s Panj district, told journalists on January 26.
“The Afghan side was supposed to hand over the abducted border guards to Tajik authorities on Sunday but the handover of the border guards did not take place for some reasons and the Afghan side informed us about the postponement of the handover date,” Tavakkalzoda said.
According to him, the captured Tajik border guards are in good condition. He promised that they will be returned to Tajikistan in the near future.
“Those who captured the border guards got in touch with us and said that they got nothing against Tajiks. They promise to hand over our border guards in the near future,” the Panj chairman said.
We will recall that four Tajik border guards were taken hostage by an unidentified group in Afghanistan on December 19, 2014.
On January 8, the Khatlon prosecutor’s office made public the identities of the abducted four Tajik border guards. In its statement, the Khatlon prosecutor’s office confirmed earlier reports that four Tajiks had been abducted by Afghans in December. It said they were border guards Farhod Kalonov, 19, Siroj Davlatov, 23, Tuychiboy Nourboyev, 19, and Mehroj Shodiyev, 20.
The statement also said that the commander of their military unit, Alimuhammad Dodokalonov, had been held responsible for the incident and charged with negligence.
