Tajikistan says four ‘neutralised’ in latest incident on Afghan border

DUSHANBE: Tajikistan officials on Sunday said they “neutralised” four “terrorists” who crossed over from neighbouring Afghanistan in an area where deadly incidents have been on the rise in recent weeks, state media reported.

Tajikistan, in Central Asia, shares a mountainous border with Afghanistan and has had tense relations with Kabul’s Taliban authorities.

According to Tajik security services cited by the state-owned Khovar news agency, “four terrorists were neutralised” after they refused to put down arms in the southern Khatlon region.

Tajik authorities have reported at least five deadly incidents on the mountainous border, which is some 1,350 (840 miles) long, since November.

An AFP count using official data found that 16 people have been killed in total.

These include Tajik border guards, Chinese workers and what Dushanbe calls “smugglers” and “terrorists”.

After attacks on Chinese nationals in November, Tajik authorities urged the Taliban to take measures to prevent destabilisation of the volatile border region, where drug traffickers and Islamist groups are active.

Unlike other Central Asian leaders who are strengthening ties with the Taliban, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon — in power since 1992 — openly criticises Afghanistan’s Islamist authorities.

He has urged the Taliban to respect the rights of ethnic Tajiks, estimated to represent around a quarter of Afghanistan’s population.

But Tajikistan is also taking steps towards cooperation with Kabul, through electricity supplies, the opening of border markets and meetings between Taliban and local Tajik officials.