New incident of gunfire at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border

According to eyewitnesses, Kyrgyz border guards opened fire on several neighborhoods of Chorkukh on the night of March 11.

Photo: Internet

Kyrgyz media report one thing about the incident involving gunfire on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border on the night of March 11, while eyewitnesses report another.

According to the portal 24.kg, citing the Kyrgyz border service, another incident involving gunfire between Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards occurred on the night of March 11 around 3 a.m. and lasted about 20 minutes.

The Kyrgyz border service claims that “on the section of the road Batken — Isfana in the Eki-Tash area of the Batken region, Tajik border guards began throwing stones at passing cars. They ignored the demand of Kyrgyz border guards to cease their actions. Kyrgyz servicemen were forced to fire into the air. At that time, another Tajik border patrol, which was on duty in that area, opened fire on the observation tower where Kyrgyz border guards were located.”

However, eyewitnesses from the Chorkukh jamoat report the opposite.

According to eyewitnesses, on the night of March 11, Kyrgyz border guards fired at the Chorkukh jamoat in the Isfara district of Tajikistan. Local residents report that the shooting began at 1:20 a.m. and lasted about 1.5 hours. Two neighborhoods of Chorkukh – named after Ibod Faizulloyev and Buston – came under fire.

The head of the Chorkukh jamoat, Shukurkhon Nasriyev, told Asia-Plus that, according to preliminary data, no civilians were harmed as a result of the shooting by Kyrgyz border guards.

According to a resident of the Ibod Faizulloyev neighborhood of the Chorkukh jamoat, later Tajik border guards arrived at the scene of the incident but did not fire back. Residents spent the night at home. Their houses were not damaged by the gunfire, but they were frightened and could not sleep until morning.

“It was dark when the shots rang out in the vicinity. We do not yet know where the shots landed. But it is said that a local resident’s house near the Kyrgyz border post was damaged,” he told Asia-Plus.

Unfortunately, Tajik authorities have not yet officially commented on the incidents at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. All global media outlets are publishing the Kyrgyz version of events.

Earlier, on March 10, a Tajik border guard and a local resident were killed in a shootout between Tajik and Kyrgyz border guards.

The Kyrgyz border service reported that no one was harmed on the Kyrgyz side. After the incident, the parties held negotiations. As it appears, these negotiations did not yield the desired results.