BISHKEK (TCA) — Tajik and Kyrgyz border guards have brawled on disputed land on the two Central Asian neighbors’ border, officials from both countries say, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reported.
Kyrgyzstan’s Border Guard Service said the incident took place in the Leilek district in the country’s southern Batken region on June 5, after Kyrgyz vendors started selling goods on a disputed part of the border.
Kyrgyz border guards briefly detained three armed Tajik border guards following the brawl that involved shooting.
Nobody was hurt.
The deputy governor of the adjacent Tajik region of Sughd, Rustam Rahmatzoda, told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service that Kyrgyz authorities released the three Tajik border guards following negotiations between officials from the two countries.
Rahmatzoda added that the situation along the border was calm and under control of both the Tajik and Kyrgyz authorities.
The governors of Batken and Sughd regions were expected to hold talks on the matter later on June 5.
Clashes and shootings are common along the borders between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The three countries’ borders meet in the densely populated Ferghana Valley.
Large portions of the borders between Central Asian states have been under dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Kyrgyzstan has recently reached a landmark agreement on delimitation of its border with neighboring Uzbekistan.
