DUSHANBE, June 25, 2012, Asia-Plus — Senior representatives from local authorities of the Tajik Isfara district and the Kyrgyz Batken district who gathered in the Tajik northern city of Isfara last Friday to discuss a June 21 hostage taking incident agreed that the incident will be investigated thoroughly and ten Kyrgyz citizens detained for taking Tajik nationals hostage will not be indulged, an official source at the Isfara district administration told Asia-Plus Monday afternoon.
As it had been reported earlier, residents of the Kyrgyz village of Karabak on June 21 took 17 Tajik nationals, running shops at the Ravoti Kaboud bazaar, hostage.
They reportedly took Tajik nationals hostage for the purpose of exchanging them for three Kyrgyz nationals, who were arrested with 103 kilograms of mercury in the territory of Tajikistan on June 20. After the explanatory conversations the hostages were released.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the organizers of the hostage-taking action and an investigation is under way. The current situation on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border and in the Kyrgyz village of Karabak is reportedly calm.
