KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – An armed clash between Tajik border guards and militants attempting to cross from Afghanistan on Tuesday left three militants and two Tajik border guards dead, Tajikistan’s State National Security Committee said.
In a press release on Thursday, the committee said that the three individuals, identified as members of a “terrorist organization,” crossed illegally from Afghanistan into Khatlon province in southern Tajikistan. They engaged in armed resistance when border guards attempted to detain them, resulting in fatalities on both sides.
Authorities said that weapons and equipment seized at the scene included three M16 rifles, a Kalashnikov rifle, three foreign-made pistols with silencers, 10 hand grenades, one night-vision device, explosives, and other ammunition.
“This was the third armed attack, terrorist act, and border infiltration from Afghanistan into Tajikistan in the past month, resulting in civilian and military casualties,” the committee said.
The committee criticized the Taliban for failing to meet international commitments to prevent cross-border attacks and called on its leadership to apologize to the people of Tajikistan and take effective measures to secure the shared border.
Taliban authorities have not commented on the incident.
Since last month, at least two other armed incidents have been reported along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border, including an attack that killed three Chinese nationals working for a private company in the region. Following that incident, China urged its citizens to leave the border area and requested that Tajik authorities investigate the killings.
Amid rising security concerns, Tajik news outlets reported that the government has approved a plan to establish four new border posts and a tank range along the frontier with Afghanistan. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon remotely inaugurated the construction of the Harbmaydon tank range, designed to train specialized personnel and equipped with modern training platforms and facilities. Rahmon has instructed the Ministry of Defense and other law enforcement agencies to use the facility effectively to enhance military training.
Over the past year, Tajikistan, like several neighboring countries, has repeatedly expressed concern over the presence of terrorist groups in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and the threats they pose to regional stability. They have called on the Taliban not to allow these groups to use Afghan territory as a base for attacks on neighboring countries.
