DUSHANBE, April 11, 2011, Asia-Plus — Resident of Sughd’s Zafarobod district has been shot to death while trying to illegally cross the Uzbek-Tajik border.
According to the Main Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), the incident took place on the night of April 8-9.
“Inomjon Mirsharifov, 20, who was returning home from Uzbekistan’s Khavast district, tried to illegally cross the border. The man did not react to warning shot given by Uzbek border guards into the air and proceeded to walk. As a result of a second shot he died on the spot,” the source said.
We will recall that Uzbekistan unilaterally imposed a visa regime for Tajik citizens in 2000. Under the visa rules, residents of border areas of the two countries may visit contiguous areas without visas for the period of not more than three days. But artificial obstacles in the way of proceedings via border-crossing points force residents of Tajik ad Uzbek border areas to seek illegal ways of crossing the border.
