News Desk
DUSHANBE: Five people have been killed in an armed clash along the Tajikistan–Afghanistan border, Tajik authorities said, amid growing concern in Dushanbe over a rise in cross-border violence.
According to a statement by Tajikistan’s state committee for national security, carried by the state news agency Khovar, three men crossed into Tajik territory late on Tuesday night in the Shamsiddin Shohin district of the southwestern Khatlon region. The suspects were tracked down the following day.
The statement said the men refused to surrender when confronted by Tajik border guards and instead opened armed resistance. Authorities claimed the group intended to attack a border outpost operated by the national security committee’s border troops. All three intruders were killed during the operation. Two Tajik border guards also died in the exchange of fire, officials said.
Tajik authorities described the incident as the third armed attack, terrorist act or illegal border incursion originating from Afghanistan in the past month. In unusually direct language, the statement accused the Afghan authorities of repeatedly failing to meet their international obligations to ensure security and stability along the shared border.
It added that Tajikistan expected the Afghan administration to issue an apology to the Tajik people and to take more effective measures to prevent further incidents. There was no immediate response from Kabul. Earlier this month, Tajikistan reported that two separate cross-border attacks from Afghan territory had left five people dead and another five wounded.
