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Two Killed In Shooting Along Tajik-Afghan Border


FILE: Tajik Servicemen of the Panj Border Service detachment walk at the Somon border outpost on the Tajik-Afghan border on August 14.
FILE: Tajik Servicemen of the Panj Border Service detachment walk at the Somon border outpost on the Tajik-Afghan border on August 14.

Two people were killed and one wounded in a shooting along Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan.

A security official in the Farkhor district 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/RLit had no information about the incident.

Local residents reported law enforcement units were in the area, with helicopters flying overhead.

Khalil Asir, a press secretary for police in the Afghan province of Takhor, which abuts the border, 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.

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