Tajikistan’s security forces reportedly killed three militants of Jamaat Ansarullah in a clash on its Afghanistan border along the Darvaz district.
The Tajik state news agency Khavar said in a statement Wednesday that the militants were intending to carry out “terrorist acts” on Tajikistan soil after illegally crossing the border into Tajik territory in the Kooran area last week.
Khavar stated that Tajikistan’s national security dispatched a counter-terrorism unit to the area to neutralize the threat and block the movements of the militants.
On Tuesday morning, a deadly clash erupted between the unit and the militants after the latter refused to surrender, the state news agency said, adding that three militants were killed in the shootout.
The Tajik counter-terrorism unit also seized stashed explosives, weapons, and ammunition—including American M16 and M4 assault rifles and night-vision goggles—smuggled from Afghanistan, Khavar mentioned.
The outlet cited sources from Tajikistan law enforcement agencies that results of examination of seized equipment and documents showed that the militants were “Tajik citizens and members of the Jamaat Ansarullah.”
According to the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Jamaat Ansarullah, alias Tajik Taliban, is a banned militant group that was founded in 2006 with the ultimate goal of replacing the Tajik secular state with an Islamic one.
Following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Tajikistan fears security concerns emanating from Afghanistan, particularly the threat of Islamic State—Khorasan Province as well as Jamaat Ansarullah.
The Taliban has said that it will not allow error groups to use Afghanistan soil as a base to conduct attacks abroad.
In June, Tajikistan’s security forces killed two militants said to be members of ISKP after they sneaked across the Afghanistan border into Tajikistan “planning a terror attack.”
Tajikistan shares more than 1,300 kilometers of border with Afghanistan, lying adjacent to the provinces of Badakhshan and Balkh, among others.