Attack on Kyrgyz-Tajik border leaves one dead
By Aynur Karimova
Unknown gunmen carried out an armed attack on the Kyrgyz frontier ‘Aikol’ on the border with Tajikistan at midnight on January 17 killing one military personnel, RIA Novosti quoted spokesperson of the State Border Service of Kyrgyzstan Gulmira Borubayeva as saying.
She noted the attack was carried out on Friday around midnight.
This is not the first incident on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. Clashes along the border occurred several times in 2013 as well. On May 7, a clash occurred between the two countries' citizens on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border on a motor 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. The clash began after a group of drunken Kyrgyz men stoned the car of a Vorukh resident. Later, Tajik and Kyrgyz sides attacked each other with stones.
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.
The length of the Kyrgyz-Tajik common border is 970 kilometers. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two Central Asian countries couldn’t agree on the fate of over 70 disputed areas on the state border. To date, some 519 kilometers of the Kyrgyz-Tajik state border remains unmarked.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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