DUSHANBE, May 12, Asia-Plus — A group of senior officers from Tajik borer service today afternoon visited the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in connection with attack on the Tajik border-crossing point “Lakkon” in the northern district of Isfara.
The Tajik border service’s source says Tajikistan has tightened control of its common border with Kyrgyzstan after an armed group shot its way through early Friday, killing two border guards and injuring one other. Tajikistan has deployed more personnel at all border and customs posts along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border, according to the source. The source says these measures are intended to avert of possible infiltration of those criminals across the border to the Tajik territory.
In the meantime, the power-wielding structures of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are carrying out operation to liquidate this armed group.
Kyrgyz media referring to the Osh (southern Kyrgyzstan) police department report that the “Sirena” Operation to seize the armed persons is ongoing.
As it had been reported earlier, an armed group numbering more than six people infiltrated into the Isfara district from the Kyrgyz territory on the night of May 11-12 and attacked the Tajik border-crossing checkpoint “Lakkon”. As a result of skirmish, two Tajik border guards were killed and one other was injured. The assailants seized 19 sub-machine-guns, one machine-gun and cartridges. They headed to the Kyrgyz region of Batken. When their Opel overturned, they hijacked a Mercedes Benz, killing the driver. Along the way to Osh, 100 kilometers of Batken, the gunmen attacked a unit of the Kyrgyz border guards and customs officers near the village of Pungon, killing two border guards and injuring one customs officer.
According to RIA Novosti, Kyrgyz border guards also said the same group had attacked a mobile border post Ak-Turpak, adding that two locals had been killed in a shootout. Eyewitnesses in Kyrgyzstan said the gunmen were traveling in a Mercedes and Opel. Then they left the Mercedes with 17 sub-machine-guns in it and walked in the direction of mountains.
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, which share the Ferghana Valley, all have sent troops into the area, according to RIA Novosti.
