Kazakh security services detain 2 involved in incident on border with Kyrgyzstan
ASTANA. Jan 29 (Interfax) - Two people involved in an incident on the border with Kyrgyzstan in which a man was shot and killed have been detained and identified as citizens of Kazakhstan, according to Kazakh National Security Committee Deputy Chairman Darkhan Dilmanov.
"We have just detained two persons," Dilmanov said at an expanded meeting of the Senate committees on foreign affairs, defense, and security in Astana on Tuesday.
The two trespassers and the third member of their group, who was shot and killed by Kyrgyz border guards, "were citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan," he said.
"Two of them were earlier prosecuted for violating the state border. This means they have trespassed into Kyrgyz territory several times before. Both of them, the deceased and one of the detainees, were given 6-month suspended sentences," Dilmanov said.
The investigation was jointly conducted by border services, military prosecution services, and the interior ministries of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, he said.
"They violated the state border in the mountains. Everywhere where it's flat is closed off with a fence, and it's physically impossible to climb over it. So we're continuing to build the fence in the mountains. The border was violated in an unfenced area," Dilmanov said.
He added that the trespassers were horse thieves.
Three men were illegally moving horses across the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border in the Zhaiylgan area of the Manas district of the Talas region in northern Kyrgyzstan on January 23. The trespassers offered resistance during the attempt to detain them, and Kyrgyz border guards opened fire. One of the trespassers was shot and died on the way to a hospital, while the others escaped into Kazakhstan.