One Tajik national was killed and at least four others were wounded in a skirmish along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border on March 13. In all, more than twenty Tajik nationals were reportedly affected by two skirmishes that occurred on the Isfara stretch of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border yesterday.
The 43-year-old teacher from the Khoja Alo village in Isfara’s Chorkuh jamoat, Husein Hakimov, was killed in the skirmish on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border yesterday, an official source at the Isfara mayor’s office told Asia-Plus today morning.
According to him, Hakimov was killed by a bullet fired from Kyrgyz territory.
“Four other residents of the Khoja Alo village who were wounded in that skirmish are currently undergoing medical treatment in the Isfara central hospital,” the source noted.
The second skirmish took place yesterday between residents of the Tojikon village of the Vorukh jamoat (Tajik exclave in Kyrgyz territory) and residents of the Kyrgyz village of Ak-Sai. They reportedly threw stones at each other.
In all, more than 20 Tajik nationals were affected by that skirmish, according to the Isfara mayor’s office.
This skirmish reportedly sparked by Kyrgyz authorities' decision to resume construction of road in the disputed territory. Residents of the Tojikon village demand that Kyrgyz authorities stop construction of the road until the border is delineated.
The situation remains tense and more than 200 nationals of Tajikistan reportedly gathered at the site of skirmish today morning, Ghafourjon Jurayev, the head of the village community of Tojikon, has told Asia-Plus by phone.
The Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan border remains one of the last undefined frontiers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Despite repeated incidents over the past several years, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan remain unable to settle their Fergana valley border.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been unable to agree on the location of the border they inherited when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. As the population in the dense Ferghana Valley grows, it has become increasingly difficult to demarcate the contested sections, where valuable agricultural land often lies.
The area at the focus of unrest among residents of border areas of the two countries lies on the jagged frontier where the east of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region meet. Skirmishes have sparked between residents of Isfara (Tajikistan) and Batken (Kyrgyzstan) districts along the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border. Trouble periodically sparks around the Tajik exclave of Vorukh.
