Kyrgyzstan's border service reported gunfights erupted between the country's
border forces and Tajikistan troops. The service added that the Tajik side
used mortars and grenade launchers.
Earlier, Bishkek said troops were alerted to "tension" on the border on the
Tajikistan side of unilaterally blocking the area linking the two Kyrgyz
cities of Batken and Isfana.
"However, at around 19:35 (local time), the situation worsened due to the
use of weapons by the Tajik side against Kyrgyz border units in the
Chyr-Dobo area of the Batken region," a spokesman for the Kyrgyz border
service said.
"The main battles between units of the Kyrgyz and Tajikistan border troops
took place in the Tort-Kocho and Chyr-Dobo regions. The Tajik side uses
mortars and grenade launchers," he continued as quoted from Sputnik,
Thursday (27/1/2022).
Meanwhile spokesman for the Isfara region of Tajikistan, which borders
Batken, Zubaidullo Shamodov told Radio Free Europe that the road was blocked
by Kyrgyz authorities.
Witnesses said local residents in Kyrgyz villages in the border area with
Tajikistan were evacuated after a gun battle between border troops of the
two Central Asian countries began today.
"There was an evacuation from the Samarkandyk region to the village of
Ravat. Only women and children were evacuated. The men remained," said the
eyewitness.
The border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has sometimes turned into a
zone of conflict between local residents and border officials on both sides.
The reason for the conflict is the unrestricted areas where it is impossible
to say the land belongs to the two countries.
Nearly half of the 970-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border has not been
demarcated, causing repeated tensions since the two countries gained
independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union three decades ago.
Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of
the Soviet Union in 1991.
The situation is especially complicated near many exclaves in the volatile
Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
meet. Last April, clashes involving military personnel along the border left
dozens dead on both sides.
