Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

A shooting occurred on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border that caused injury for six Tajik citizens, two of them in serious condition, Tajik media reports referencing the press service of the Main Directorate of Border Troops of the National Security Committee of Tajikistan.

Chief Directorate of Border Troops in Tajikistan said that on August 4, villagers of Tajikistan's Somoniyon village were injured in a shooting from Kyrgyzstan's Kok-Tash village.

The Tajik side also said that the residents of the Kyrgyz village used “Molotov cocktails.”

The State Border Service of Kyrgyzstan, in turn, officially announced that Kyrgyz border guards had not used weapons in the conflict between the citizens of the two countries.

“Today, a single shot was made on the territory of Tajikistan during the conflict, and, according to preliminary information, it was made from a shotgun,” the Kyrgyz border service said. “There are no victims of the shot on the Kyrgyz side.”

Kyrgyz officials said that currently, the situation in the Mayskaya area of the Batken region near the Kyrgyz-Tajik state border is controlled by the security and law enforcement agencies of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

“The border representatives of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are monitoring the situation in the border areas and carry out explanatory work with the population of these areas in cooperation with the law enforcement bodies of the two sides,” said the message.

The conflict between the residents of the border regions of the two countries originated from the fact that the citizens of Tajikistan blocked the road to a cemetery for the residents of Kyrgyzstan's Kok-Tash village.

The road to the cemetery passed through the village of Mayskoye, where Tajik families live. In protest, Kyrgyz citizens cut the water supply from a canal that flows into the Tajik village of Chorku.

As a result, about 120 Tajiks and 80 Kyrgyz citizens threw stones at each other.

This is not the first incident on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. Clashes along the border occurred several times in 2014 as well.

In January 2014, an armed clash occurred between the servicemen of the State Border Service of Kyrgyzstan and border troops of the Tajik State National Security Committee near the main water intake structure of Batken region in Kyrgyzstan's Batken province.

In May, a clash occurred between the two countries' citizens on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border on a road running from the Isfara town to the municipality of Vorukh near the Kyrgyz village of Kuktosh.

As a result of the clash, about 60 people from both sides were injured. It began after a group of drunken Kyrgyz men stoned the car of a Vorukh resident. Later, the Tajik and Kyrgyz sides attacked each other with stones.

In August, a skirmish occurred between the border guards of Tajikistan and three unknown armed persons. The skirmish took place in the village of Tupakul, as a result of which one Kyrgyz citizen was killed.

Most areas along borders in Central Asia are still tense after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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