DUSHANBE, April 7, 2016, Asia-Plus – Taliban militants have reportedly gone away from Tajik border.
In recent weeks, clashes between the Afghan government forces and extremist groups have taken place far away from Tajikistan’s border, according to the Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, locally known as Ozodi.
Tajik border guards and residents of districts bordering Afghanistan say they have not heard shooting sound over the last two months.
The authorities and experts, however, note that the situation in Afghanistan is unpredictable and a temporary lull along the Tajik-Afghan border does not mean an absence of threat to security.
Muhammad Ulughkhojayev, a spokesman for the Border Guard Department at the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan, has also confirmed that the current situation along the Tajik-Afghan border is relatively calm.
However, he noted in an interview with Ozodi that Tajik border guards are in fighting trim.
Several months ago, fierce clashes had been taking place only 10 kilometers of Tajikistan’s border and two shells fired by Afghan government forces had hit across the border in Tajikistan and Kabul had submitted apologies to Dushanbe for that.
The advance of the hardline Taliban had mounted fears in Tajikistan. Residents of the border districts of Panj and Farkhor have repeatedly told Ozodi that their houses had been shaken by explosions in Afghan border areas.
The Afghan authorities say extremists groups have gone way from the border and several local commanders of Taliban have been killed in Kunduz province in recent week.
Haji Muhammad Aga Davoud, chief of police of Takhar province, which borders Tajikistan’s Khatlon province, told Ozodi on April 6 that Taliban militants have been driven out of border areas in that region.
We will recall that Taliban militants captured Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on September 28, 2015 in one of the biggest military victories for movement since 2001. It is the most serious invasion of a provincial capital in 14 years.
After days of bitter fighting, the Afghan government forces retook the major city of Kunduz from Taliban militants on October 1, 2015. The U.S. military reportedly helped the Afghan forces during the operation through advisers on the ground and by conducting airstrikes,
Tajik expert on Afghanistan, Qosimsho Iskandarov, noted that two important strategic areas of northern Baghlan province — Dand-e-Ghori and Dand-e-Shahabuddin – had also been retaken from Taliban militants that had paralyzed their activity to a certain extent.
“However, threat to neighboring countries remains intact. Taliban intend to capture power in Kabul. Indeed, the government forces carried out a number of successful operation against this group in the winter but the provinces of Helmand, Kunduz and Baghlan are still under their [Taliban] control,” Iskandarov said.
Tajikistan”s has a 1,344 kilometer frontier with war-torn Afghanistan.
