Another shootout took place along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border Friday (June 3) noon increasing tension. As usual, each side blames the other for starting the shooting.
The shootout reportedly broke out in the Puli Oftobru area, some 10 kilometers of the center of Vorukh jamoat (an exclave surrounded by Kyrgyzstan that forms part of the city of Isfara in Tajikistan’s northern Sughd province) at about noon.
A source within Vorukh jamoat says Kyrgyz border guards illegally crossed into disputed area controlled by the Tajik border guards.
“The Kyrgyz border guards were required to leave the territory, but they ignored this demand,” said the source. “A verbal skirmish that began between the border guards escalated into a shootout.”
Meanwhile, the Kyrgyz side blames Tajik border guards for starting the shooting.
24.kg says the shootout broke out in Bulak Bashi area at about noon. Kyrgyzstan’s border service has released a statement accusing the Tajik border guards of starting the shooting. Kyrgyz border guard on a routine patrol in Bulak Bashi area spotted a group of Tajik border guards, who illegally crossed a conditional border line into Kyrgyz territory.
Ignoring the legal demand to leave the territory, Tajik border guards allegedly opened fire at Kyrgyz border guards. In a skirmish that broke out between the border patrols of the two countries, Tajik border guards reportedly used mortars.
The Border Guard Directorate of the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan (SCNS) has not yet commented on this incident.
Kyrgyz media reports say the shootout reportedly stopped at 2:15 pm Kyrgyz time (1:15 pm Tajik time).
24.kg says two Kyrgyz border guards were wounded in the shootout. They were reportedly taken to a hospital in Batten district; one of them is reportedly in serious condition.
AKIpress says one Kyrgyz border guard was wounded in the skirmish and “he received the necessary medical assistance.”
Tajik and Kyrgyz border representatives are currently working in the scene of the incident.
In the previous clash between Tajik and Kyrgyz bard guards that took place on April 12 near Khistevarz jamoat in the Bobojon-Ghafourov district of the Tajik northern province of Sughd, on Tajik border was killed and one more Tajik guard was wounded.
Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan, which is 970 kilometers in length, has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has been difficult to demarcate the Kyrgyz-Tajik border because over the course of some 100 years Soviet mapmakers drew and redrew the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, incorporating land that had traditionally belonged to one people in the territory of the other Soviet republic. Exclaves appeared and temporary land use agreements were signed.
All of this survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and people in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have various Soviet-era maps they use to justify their claim to specific areas along the border.
Border talks between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan began in 2002. The border delineation problem has led to conflicts between rival ethnic communities.
To-date, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have held more than 170 meetings and negotiations on delimitation and demarcation of the common border.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said in an exclusive interview with Kabar news agency on April 25 that the parties have agreed on 600 kilometers [of the mutual border] and they have another 300 kilometers left to delimit and demarcate.
