Bishkek protests against Kyrgyz-Tajik border shootout
BISHKEK. Aug 26 (Interfax) - The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry has protested against the armed incident, which happened on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border on Monday.
There was an armed incident involving servicemen of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the Sai area of the Lailak district in the Batken region at about 6:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. Moscow time) on August 25, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry press service told Interfax on Tuesday.
"Kyrgyz servicemen opened gunfire to stop the illegal activity of Tajik citizens and the dismantlement of a bridge by Tajik servicemen and a shootout started," the press service said.
"During the 30-minute gunfire exchange, the Kulundu border post was put under mortar fire from Tajikistan," the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry continued.
"Therefore, the Foreign Ministry drew up and presented to the Tajik side a protest note in which the Kyrgyz side expressed its profound concern about the incident, urged the Tajik side to strictly abide by the norms and principles of international laws and proposed an immediate joint inquiry, punishment of all culprits and explanations of the activity of Tajik servicemen which disagreed with every accord reached between the sides earlier," the press service said.