DUSHANBE (TCA) — Two Tajik people were killed and one wounded in a shooting along Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reported on August 26.
A security official in the Farkhor district in southern Tajikistan told RFE/RL that the three people were loggers and that their car had been targeted from across the border.
It was unclear whether they were hit by small-arms or mortar fire. However, the news site Akhbor reported their car was hit by mortar fire.
The Tajik Border Guard Service told RFE/RL it had no information about the incident.
Local residents reported law enforcement units were in the area, with helicopters flying overhead.
Tajikistan’s Farkhor district borders Afghanistan’s Takhor province.
Khalil Asir, a press secretary for police in the Afghan province of Takhor, said he had been notified about a shooting but had no information yet.
He noted that the province has a strong presence of Taliban fighters.
Tajikistan has a nearly 1,400-kilometer border with Afghanistan. The border is largely porous, with people, contraband, weaponry, and drugs flowing back and forth.
Earlier this year, Radzhabali Rakhmonali, the commander of the Tajik Border Guard Service, warned that up to 7,000 Taliban fighters were believed to be scattered along the Tajik-Afghan border.
Tajikistan hosts a Russian military base that is aimed at ensuring security of Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization member states.
