DUSHANBE, May 28, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan today marks the 13th anniversary of the establishment of Tajik border troops.
Khoushnoud Rahmatulloyev, a spokesman for the border protection directorate of the State Committee for National Security, said that a ceremonial meeting dedicated to this date presided by the border protection directorate chief, Major-General Sheralisho Mirzoyev, was held at Tajik Higher Border Officers’ Training School in Dushanbe today morning.
A total length of Tajikistan’s border is more than 4,500 kilometers. The 1,344-kilometer Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan still remains the most complex section.
In January-April 2007 alone, Tajik border troops have seized more than 268 kilograms of drugs on this stretch of the country’s border. The report period has also seen six engagements between Tajik border troops and armed drug smugglers. As a result of those skirmishes, 18 Afghan drug traffickers were detained and 13 firearms, including five sub-machine-guns Kalashnikov and 159 bullets of different caliber, were seized.
Over the report period, Tajik border guards have stopped 35 attempts of illegally crossing the border, and 73 trespassers have been detained over the same four-month period.
Russian specialists provide assistance to Tajik border troops in strengthening of the border control.
Under the bilateral agreement that was signed on October 16, 2004, an operational group of the Federal Security Service stays in Tajikistan to perform advisory functions, provide assistance to Tajik border guards in the effective border patrolling and training of the young generation of border guards.
