Employees of the power structures of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan staged a shootout on the border between countries. At the same time, the sides accused each other in the escalation of the conflict, reports on Thursday, April 29, Interfax.
The incident occurred at about 13:00 local time at the site of the Water distribution point “Head”. At the press center of the border troops, the GKNB Tajikistan stated that the Kyrgyz military first opened fire in Tajik border guards. There also stressed that this happened against the background of attempts by the “illegal seizure” of the Kyrgyz side of the water distribution point in violation of the previously reached agreements.
In turn, the deputy head of the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan Marufkhan Tulaev said that the shootout was started because of the actions of Silovikov Tajikistan: they were the first to shoot, after which the Kyrgyz military had to open a retaliatory fire. In addition, as explained in the State Committee of the National Security of Kyrgyzstan, from Early morning the Tajik side began to fill the cars of Kyrgyzstan citizens from hunting rifles passing in this area. Before that, Tajikistan’s citizens also caught that they were conceded by Kyrgyz stones and their homes.
In the Ministry of Health of the Republic, they were reported that eight citizens of Kyrgyzstan were already injured during the conflict – they were all brought to hospitals. It is known that at least one of the hospitalized firearms were revealed, the nature of the injuries of other victims is not specified.
Tajikistan considers the area where the water distribution point is “head”, its territory. At the same time, in Kyrgyzstan, it is considered as controversial.
The length of the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is 976 kilometers, but only 504 of them were delimited and demarked. The problem exacerbates the presence of excavations in the territory of the two countries. There are often conflicts due to lands, water, illegal intersections of borders and inter-ethnic disagreements often arise in non-evilted boundaries. During conflicts, stones are going on, sometimes the incident will develop into an armed confrontation.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are included in the organization of the Collective Security Treaty.