DUSHANBE, January 17, 2015, Asia-Plus — Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda has confirmed information about concentration of armed militants in the Afghan areaa near the Tajik border.
Militants that have concentrated in Afghan areas bordering Tajikistan are members of various terrorist groups, including Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Rahimzoda told journalists in Dushanbe on January 16.
“In this connection, Tajikistan is taking measures to strengthen its common border with Afghanistan,” the minister said, noting that the country’s power-wielding structures have been put on intensified service regime.
According to him, Tajikistan’s relevant agencies are in constant contact with Afghan defense and law enforcement authorities.
“We have reached an agreement on opening Tajik Interior Ministry’s representative office in Afghanistan that will coordinate efforts of the law enforcement authorities of the two countries in combating organized crime, extremism, terrorism and trafficking in drugs and weapons,” the minister noted.
We will recall that Russian news agency Itar Tass on January 8 quoted an official source at the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan (SCNS) as saying that they have information about the dangerous concentration of armed militants in the Afghan border areas near the Tajik border and they have taken a number of preventive measures.
“We monitor the situation in our areas bordering Afghanistan, especially the Badakhshan and Panj stretches where concentration of armed militants of various terrorist and extremist groups such as the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is observed,” the source told Itar Tass in an interview, commenting on the possible intrusion of a group of the Taliban militants into Tajikistan.
According to him, Tajik special services have taken a number of measures to strengthen the most vulnerable stretches of Tajikistan’s common border with Afghanistan.
“Close cooperation with colleagues from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations has been established on exchange of updated information about the purpose of concentration of armed militants near the border with Tajikistan and their plans,” the source was quoted as saying.
