DUSHANBE, February 27, Asia-Plus – Tajik border troops have warded off an attempt by a group of Afghan drug traffickers to illegally cross into the territory of the Shuroobod district.
According to the main border protection directorate of the State Committee for National Security, Tajik border guards on a routine patrol spotted a group of armed Afghan drug traffickers numbering eight persons, who were illegally crossing border river near the village of Anjirob in the Shuroobod district late Monday. “When the border troops tried to detain the trespassers, the last opened fire at them,” the source said.
Servicemen of the frontier post blockaded the scene of action and skirmish between border troops and the trespassers lasted for two hours. “Two trespassers were killed in the skirmish and another one was drowned in the river and others managed to return to the contiguous territory,” the source said, adding that no casualties among the border troops were reported.
The source at the main border protection directorate noted that it was already the second attempt by Afghan drug traffickers to intrude into the Tajik territory on this stretch of the Tajik-Afghan border since the beginning of the year. “Several weeks ago, border troops warded off an attempt by illegal armed group numbering 10 persons to intrude from Afghanistan,” the source said.
Two special operations carried out by Tajik border troops on February 23 and 26 in the Hamadoni districts led to the arrest of two Afghan drug traffickers. 13 kilograms of cannabis and nine kilograms of raw opium were seized in a February 23 and eight packages containing heroin, two packages with raw opium and one sack of cannabis were seized in a February 26 operation, according to the source.
Last year, Tajik border troops seized more than 820 kilograms of drugs.
