According to the latest data, more than 20 people were killed and more than 200 others wounded after security forces from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan exchanged fire across the border over a water reservoir.
Asia-Plus’s sources in Isfara city and Bobojon-Ghafourov district report more than 90 wounded and about 10 dead on the Tajik side.
A source within the Isfara mayor’s office says Isfara Mayor Bahovaddin Bahodurzoda, who arrived in Somoniyon village to get acquainted with the situation and for possible negotiations was wounded in the shoulder yesterday evening. “His condition is assessed as stable and there is no cause for concern,” the source added.
According to the data from the Health Ministry of Kyrgyzstan for 7:50 am today morning (Bishkek time), 134 Kyrgyz nationals were wounded and 13 others were killed during the April 28-29 clashes.
Recall, fighting broke out late on Wednesday on the border between Tajikistan’s northern Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s southern Batken region because of a row over a water distribution facility located in the upper reaches of the Isfara River, which both countries claim as their own.
Locals on both sides hurled stones at each other before fighting escalated and the sides started exchanging gunfire on Thursday.
Kyrgyzstan’s State National Security Committee accused the Tajik side of using mortars to shell the disputed water facility. Tajik authorities said the facility belonged to them and accused Kyrgyz forces of shooting at Tajik border guards.
Tajik Prime-Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda met with his Kyrgyz counterpart Ulukbek Maripov in Kazan yesterday on the sidelines of the session of the Eurasian Inter-governmental Council.
The Kyrgyz government’s press service says the two discussed the current situation along the mutual border and expressed full readiness to contribute to the speedy settlement of the conflict situation along the mutual border through negotiations.
Late on April 29, the two countries' foreign ministries announced they had agreed a cease-fire after hours of talks and would stick to it and pull back troops while resolving the conflict through diplomacy.
Recall, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said during a visit to Tajikistan's Vorukh exclave within Kyrgyzstan earlier in April that agreements on almost half of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border had been reached during more than 100 rounds of negotiations between Dushanbe and Bishkek since work on border delimitation started in 2002.
