DUSHANBE, April 29, 2010, Asia-Plus — Nine Afghan National Border Police officers and five Tajikistan Border Guard officers completed the first joint Afghan-Tajik training class offered at the U.S. government supported Khorog Training Center press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe on April 27 said.
Colonel Firuz Abduroziqov, head of the Khorog Detachment, Juma Davronbekov, head of legal-administrative Department of GBAO, Abdulhakim Haydari, representative of Afghan Consular in Khorog, and IOM Project Specialist Aziza Sindarova awarded certificates to the officers.
The International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) section of U.S. Embassy funded the construction of the Khorog Training Center, which opened in 2006. Since the opening, INL has funded the International Organization of Migration to administered the Center. More than 300 Tajik Border Guards have been trained at the Center.
The majority of the nine Afghan officers have been assigned to the border checkpoints of Ishkashim, Shugnan and Darvaz in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, while the Tajik officers are assigned to GBAO checkpoints.
The courses offered at the Khorog Training Center promote the security of Tajikistan and Afghanistan by strengthening the capabilities of the Border Guards to fight drug trafficking, terrorism and extremism. The course participants are trained on border security, cross border cooperation, visa policy, detection of fraud documents, combating human trafficking and terrorism. The joint training takes advantage of the language similarity between Dari and Tajik and promotes cooperation between the Tajik and Afghan Border forces. Joint training for Tajikistan and Afghanistan border guards in the Khorog Training Center is ongoing.
The INL section of the U.S. Embassy has cooperated with Tajikistan law enforcement agencies since 1992 in implementing assistance projects totaling more than 29 million U.S. dollars to provide border security, support rule of law, and combat drug trafficking efforts.
