Four gunmen killed in Tajikistan border skirmish after crossing from Afghanistan

Skirmish near Badakhshan leaves four dead, Tajikistan says

Four gunmen who crossed from Afghanistan into neighboring Tajikistan were killed in a skirmish with Tajik border guards overnight, Tajikistan’s National Security Committee said Monday.

The committee said the border guards spotted the men near a village close to the border with Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province. It said the four men refused an order to surrender and offered armed resistance, and were killed in the ensuing skirmish.

The National Security Committee described the four men as “members of a terrorist organization,” but it did not provide details about their identities or alleged affiliation.

Afghan officials describe the men differently

Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the gunmen were smugglers. He told The Associated Press, “Investigations are underway to determine who they were and what they were smuggling, but they are smugglers.”

Mujahid said, “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,” using the Taliban government’s preferred term for Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the provincial police command in Afghanistan’s border province of Badakhshan, Ehsanullah Kamgar, said three people had been killed and identified them as drug smugglers, in contrast to the Tajik account of four.

Second violent incident since November, amid uneasy ties

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 late-November attack was carried out from inside Afghanistan with a drone equipped with grenades and firearms.

In November, Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, the Afghan Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman, said 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 had tense relations since the Taliban took power in 2021, when Tajikistan cut ties with its southern neighbor. Since then, there have been signs of a gradual thaw, including markets reopening in the border area in 2023 and a Tajik delegation visiting Kabul in November.