Another clash has taken place between residents of Tajik and Kyrgyz border areas. This time, the incident has taken place in the territory of Chorkuh jamoat, which is subordinate to the Tajik northern city of Isfara. The Isfara mayor’s office has called this incident ‘another provocation’.
Iqbol Ilyoszoda, a spokesman for the Isfara mayor’s office, wrote on his Facebook page that the incident took place in the morning of May 23.
According to him, a group of residents of the Kyrgyz village of Kok-Tash destroyed the fence of the house of Anvar Ibrohimov, the resident of the village of Somoniyon, the Chorkuh jamoat in the Tajik northern Sughd province. 100 residents of the village of Kok-Tash, mostly young men, participated in the incident, Ilyoszoda notes.
“According to information received from the administration of the Chorkuh jamoat, residents of Kok-Tash also blocked the road connecting Smoniyoni Bolo and the center of the jamoat from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. The road was reopened only after Isfara Mayor Sijouddin Salomzoda’s negotiations with administrators of Kyrgyzstan’s Batken district and explanatory work carried out by law enforcement officers among residents of Kok-Tash,” Ilyoszoda says.
Tajik and Kyrgyz border services have not yet commented on this incident.
It is already the second incident on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border over this week.
The previous incident occurred between residents of Tajik and Kyrgyz border areas on May 22 after a group of Kyrgyz nationals accompanied by armed Kyrgyz border guards crossed into Tajik territory near the village of Lakkon in Isfara district. According to Isfara authorities, 200 residents of the village of Ravat in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken district accompanied by armed Kyrgyz border guards yesterday crossed into Tajik territory near the village of Lakkon. Tajik border guards reportedly made a warning shot in the air.
In statement released on May 23, Tajikistan’s border service said that the Kyrgyz side intends to illegally capture the territory of cemetery, a total area of which is 4 hectares.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyz media reports have said the clash between residents of the Kyrgyz village of Karabak and Tajik border guards took place at the cemetery, which is located in Tajik territory some 150 meters from a conditional boundary line. This area has not yet been inventoried but it is actually used by Kyrgyz nationals, according to 24.kg.
Residents of the village of Karabak were reportedly making memorial prayers when Tajik border guards came.
“People demanded that the border guards leave the cemetery. Border representatives of both countries came to the site to resolve the conflict,” 24.kg reported on May 23 citing Kyrgyzstan’s border service.
