KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Four gunmen who crossed from Afghanistan into neighboring Tajikistan were killed in a skirmish with border guards overnight, Tajikistan’s National Security Committee said Monday. It was the second violent incident since November along the border between the two countries.
The Tajik border guards spotted the gunmen near a village close to the border with Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, the committee said in a statement. It added that the four men refused an order to surrender and offered armed resistance, and were killed in the ensuing skirmish.
The committee described the men as “members of a terrorist organization,” but did not offer details.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the gunmen were smugglers. “Investigations are underway to determine who they were and what they were smuggling, but they are smugglers,” Mujahid told The Associated Press.
He said that along this stretch of Afghanistan’s border, “there have always been problems caused by smugglers, and the Islamic Emirate has already taken steps to prevent them, and we are trying to investigate who they are,” he said, using the Taliban government’s preferred way of referring to the country.
The incident comes weeks after a reported cross-border attack from Afghanistan into Tajikistan that killed three Chinese workers and wounded a fourth. Tajikistan said the attack in late November was carried out from inside Afghanistan with a drone equipped with grenades and firearms.
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Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, the Afghan Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman, said in November that the attack appeared to have been caused by “elements that are trying to create chaos, instability, and distrust between countries in the region.” He promised the Afghan government’s “full cooperation with the government of Tajikistan.”
Tajikistan and Afghanistan have a history of testy relations, particularly after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, when Tajikistan cut ties with its southern neighbor. There have since been signs of a gradual thaw in relations including markets reopening in the border area in 2023 and a Tajik delegation visiting Kabul in November.
