DUSHANBE, September 18, 2014, Asia-Plus — One Afghan drug dealer has been killed and two others have been wounded in crossfire on the Tajik-Afghan border in the southern Khatlon province.
According to the public relations center of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Tajik border guards on a routine patrol spotted three armed Afghan drug traffickers who were illegally crossing the border river in the Shouroobod district late Wednesday.
As a result of skirmish, one of drug traffickers was reportedly killed and two others were wounded. The wounded trespassers managed to return to Afghan territory.
More than eight kilograms of raw opium, 2.5 kilograms of heroin, and Kalashnikov submachine gun were found on the spot, the source said.
According to him, the killed drug trafficker was identified as resident of Afghan Badakhshan Province, Salam waladi Mokafat, who was accused by the Tajik authorities of killing Tajik border guard in 2010 and taking residents of the Dashti Jum jamoat in the Shouroobod district hostage.
The southern Shouroobod area is the most vulnerable part of Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan. Residents of the border villages in the Shouroobod district are falling prey to drug dealers who are taking desperate measure to recover debts. Afghan drug dealers are kidnapping residents of these villages, taking from the villages and holding hostage until their families clear money owed to the drug lords.
