A Tajik soldier was killed on Tuesday (June 14) in an exchange of fire between guards at the disputed border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, where tensions regularly arise, local media and a Russian agency reported.
To discover
LIVE - Legislative 2022: follow the negotiations the day after the first round
Read alsoIn Tajikistan, Afghan exiles escaped the Taliban in extremis
Police in the Tajik town of Isfara, near the border, told Russian news agency Ria Novosti that Kyrgyz border guards opened fire on their Tajik counterparts "
for no reason
" early Tuesday morning (June 14).
"
As a result, a border guard died and three people were injured
," the news agency reported, citing a representative of the city's police department.
The private Tajik news site Asia-Plus also reported the death of a Tajik soldier, citing a resident of the Tajik enclave of Vorukh, close to the scene of the shooting.
The Foreign Ministry of Tajikistan, a closed and authoritarian country, accused Tajikistan's forces of opening fire first, adding that the commander of a border crossing was seriously injured, but without report of death.
"
The Tajik side condemns the actions ... of Kyrgyz military personnel and calls on the Kyrgyz side to take urgent measures to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future
," the ministry said in a statement.
Frequent conflicts in the area
Kyrgyz border services said in a statement that Tajik troops opened fire on a Kyrgyz border crossing and accused Tajikistan of then firing mortars.
According to this press release, calm has returned and the representatives of the border services of the two countries were in talks.
“
The first result of the negotiations was the decision to withdraw the units from their combat positions
,” according to this source.
Read alsoExchanges of fire at the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
The border communities of these two poor states from the former Soviet Union regularly clash over the supply of land and water, with the frequent involvement of border guards.
Almost half of the 970 km of borders between the two countries are disputed and progress in terms of demarcation has been slow in recent years.
Exchanges of fire have taken place on several occasions in recent months, a sign of the volatile nature of the situation.
The year 2021 has seen an unprecedented number of clashes between the two sides, leaving more than 50 dead and raising fears of the widening of the conflict.
