KHUJAND, August 4, 2014, Asia-Plus — One more incident has reportedly taken place along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.
“The incident took place between residents of the Tajik village of Khojai Alo (Chorkuh jamoat in the Isfara district, Sughd province) and the Kyrgyz village of Aksai (Batken district) Saturday (August 2) afternoon,” Abdukhalil Sharipov, the deputy head of the Chorkuh jamoat, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, the incident took place because residents of Tajik villages do not have access to pastures. Several cows of Tajik nationals have reportedly strayed into lands belonging to residents of the Kyrgyz village of Aksai.
“The cows and their owners were taken to the Aksai center, where the sides reached an agreement that Tajik nationals will pay compensation for the damage caused to residents of the Aksai village,” Sharipov said.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyz media sources have quoted Kyrgyz border service as saying that the incident took place between residents of the Kyrgyz border village of Aksai and Tajikistan’s Vorukh exclave inside Kyrgyzstan after residents of Vorukh allegedly entered lands belonging to Kyrgyz nationals and began harvesting corn. Tajik and Kyrgyz border guards reportedly managed to calm residents of the border villages.
Kyrgyz media sources also report that Tajik nationals then threw stones at two cars belonging to Kyrgyz nationals on another stretch of the border.
Due to joint efforts of local authorities and law enforcement agencies of the two countries an agreement was reached that Tajik nationals who were illegally harvesting corn in Kyrgyz lands will pay compensation to Kyrgyz nationals, Kyrgyz media sources reported.
We will recall that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to withdraw supernumerary troops from border areas. A decision on withdrawal of supernumerary troops was taken in late July in the Tajik northern city of Isfara at a meeting, co-chaired by the head of Tajikistan’s Main Border Guard Directorate Rajabali Rahmonali and his Kyrgyz counterpart Rayimberdy Duyishenbiyev. An incident that took place along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border on July 10 was a major topic of the meeting, the source said. The meeting reportedly resulted in signing of a protocol, under which the sides agree to exchange information on the situation in border areas and respond promptly to changes in the situation. The sides also agree to patrol the Tamdyk-Bedak stretch of the common border jointly.
One Tajik national was killed and at least seven other Tajik nationals were wounded on July 10 as Kyrgyz border guards opened fire on local citizens in Tajikistan’s Vorukh exclave inside Kyrgyzstan.
Both sides blamed each other for starting an incident on July 10 in which one Tajik national was killed and seven others, including two border guards, were injured.
The Kyrgyz side later claimed that Tajik border guards fired mortars and a grenade launcher toward Kyrgyz territory after the incident. Kyrgyz authorities say one Kyrgyz border guard was injured and hospitalized.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been locked in a tense border disputed for months around Vorukh, which is part of Tajikistan, but due to past redrawing of borders, it exists as an exclave some 20 kilometers inside Kyrgyzstan.
