10 Jan 2020 11:51

Tajikistan claims provocation by Kyrgyz side on border

DUSHANBE. Jan 10 (Interfax) - Tajikistan views gunshots fired into the air overnight from Kyrgyz territory in the vicinity of the Tajik village of Somoniyon in the Chorkuh rural community of the city of Isfara near the border as a provocation, a spokesperson for the Isfara city administration wrote on Facebook.

"Gunshots were indiscriminately fired into the air from Kyrgyz territory at around 2:00 a.m. on January 10. Single rounds were fired using Kalashnikov assault rifles and hunting guns. The gunfire stopped at around 2:30 a.m. after representatives of both sides' police and border services intervened. There have been no reports so far on casualties among citizens of Tajikistan," the spokesperson said.

This is the third provocation by the Kyrgyz side over the past few days, the spokesperson said.

"Early on January 8, residents in the village of Kok-Tash in the Batken district set fire to a house belonging to citizen of the Republic of Tajikistan Narzullo Abdulloyev. As a result, the house was rendered unfit for human habitation. At around 9:20 p.m. on January 9, 2020, citizens of Kyrgyzstan attacked citizen of Tajikistan - resident of the Chorkuh jamoat Zafar Azamov - without any reason and smashed the windshield of his car with a stone" the spokesperson said.

A woman who lives in a Tajik village was wounded when a hunting rifle was fired from Kyrgyz territory on December 31, the spokesperson said. The woman is currently in hospital.

According to earlier reports, the Kyrgyz authorities evacuated 254 people from the Dakhma area.

Kyrgyzstan reported that unknown individuals hurled stones at cars of Kyrgyz citizens in the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan during the night and then escaped to Tajikistan. Several people inside the cars were injured in the incident.

Later, Tajik citizens threw stones at a Kyrgyz man's house in the Dakhma area. Shortly afterward, border guards and law enforcement officers on their way to the house came under fire from small-caliber hunting rifles from Tajik territory.