Tajikistan’s border service accuses Ms. Raziya Osorova, the head of Kyrgyz village of Kok-Tash near the border, of provoking a clash near Tajik border on January 22.
Muhammad Ulughkhojyaev, a spokesman for the Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Tajikistan, says that Ms. Osorova “has repeatedly been seen in the center of provocative actions along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border between the Tajik Isfara district and the Kyrgyz Batken district.”
“She is trying to drive out Tajiks from border areas or to force them to get Kyrgyz citizenship,” Ulugjkhojayev said.
According to him, three residents of the Tajik village of Somoniyon (Chorkuh jamoat of Isfara), Yosinjon Amakov, 32, Khairullokhon Alizoda, 17, and Muslihiddin Shairpov, 16, were beaten by 15 residents of the Kyrgyz village of Kon-Tash on January 22 when they were returning home after a friendly soccer match.
“Three cars of Tajik policemen who came to the scene of incident were pelted with stones and one of Tajik border guards sustained a light injury,” said Ulughkhojyaev. “The preliminary investigation has established that the clash was provoked by Ms. Raziya Osorova and Mr. Zayniddin Khuramov, who was in a state of drunkenness.”
He further added that the situation was now stable and calm.
Meanwhile, Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz Service reports that Razia Osorova has been hospitalized after a clash between Kyrgyz and Tajiks living near the two nations' frontier.
Raziya Osorova told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service on January 23 that she was hospitalized with numerous bruises after being beaten in the clash between residents of the two border villages on January 22.
Officials in Tajikistan's Isfara district told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service that three Tajik citizens were being treated by medical personnel for injuries they sustained in the clashes.
Dozens of local residents from both sides clashed and threw stones at each other, damaging a private home and four automobiles, the Kyrgyz Border Guard Service said.
The head of Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region, Kenesh Salikhov, told Kyrgyz media on January 21 that a representative of the Tajik police came informed him that some villagers from the Kyrgyz village of Kok-Tash had assaulted a citizen of Tajikistan. Salikhov said that his information led him to disbelieve the Tajik police account.
“Later, we found out this person was not assaulted by our citizens and the Tajik police had no case to make, but on the next day, the victim summoned about 15-20 people and came to our village for a showdown,” he was cited as saying by Zanoza.kg.
The bout of verbal sparring from both sides then escalated into stone-throwing.
Turmush.kg news website says the clash involved around 20 residents from the Kyrgyz village and nearly 100 residents of the Tajik side.
Salikhov said on January 23 that officials from both sides of the border would be meeting to definitively resolve the situation.
