A gunshot incident took place on the Isfara stretch of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border today early in the morning. The reason and the details of the incident are still unknown.
As a result of shot fired by unidentified persons the chief of the Kyrgyz frontier post “Koktash,” Senior Lieutenant Sher Kabirov, was wounded, the press center of the Main Border guard Directorate of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Tajikistan says.
Not far from the place of the incident, a 65-year-old resident of the Tajik village of Chorkuh, Vohid Vahhobov, was shot dead, according to Tajik Border Guard Directorate press center. .
The situation along the border is reportedly under control.
Meanwhile, the press center of the Kyrgyz border service reported on wounding of its officer but said nothing about the killed Tajik national.
Kyrgyz news agency Turmush says the shots were fired on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border in the morning of August 6. The shots were reportedly fired from the Tajik side at around 5.11 a.m. in Eki-Tash area. Acting commander of the Kyrgyz border detachment was reportedly wounded in his right hand and was taken to a hospital in Batken. His condition is satisfactory.
According to AKIpress, unknown individuals fired shots from the territory of Tajikistan presumably from gunshot and wounded a serviceman of the State Border Service of Kyrgyzstan. The serviceman received a penetrating hand wound.
Representatives of Border Services of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are holding talks now.
The situation is described as stable on the border.
It is to be noted that many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.
The border of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The countries share 971 kilometers of border – of which only 504 kilometers has reportedly been properly delineated.
The previous incident along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border reportedly occurred on June 2 in Kyrgyzstan’s southern Batken region. According to the Kyrgyz border service, unknown individuals opened fire at a car with Kyrgyz license plates in the Eski-Tash district at around 1.30 a.m. local time. The man in the car was wounded and was taken to a hospital in the village of Samarkandek.
Another incident along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border reportedly took place on May 27, at 11:55. A statement released by the Main Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Tajikistan, in particular, says that contrary to previously signed agreements, Kyrgyz national Soat Bakhtibekov, resident of the Koktash village, shot a 25-year-old Tajik woman Zuhrona Sharopova (Mutabarkhonum Zuhriddin), who was hospitalized with a gunshot wound.
The two countries have accused each other of escalating tensions along the border since early May.
Last year alone, there were at least fourteen cases of violence, in which six Tajik nationals and one Kyrgyz citizen were killed and more than 60 other people were injured.
