ISLAMABAD: A deadly confrontation along the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border this week has left at least five people dead, including two Tajik border guards, after armed militants crossed into Tajik territory and exchanged fire with security forces, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB) said in an official statement on Friday.
According to Tajikistan's border protection agency, heavily armed men infiltrated the village of Kavo in the Shamsiddin Shokhin district on Tuesday. When security forces tracked them down the next day, the intruders opened fire on a guard post, killing two Tajik personnel before three of the attackers were killed in the return fire.
The weapons cache recovered from the scene included three M-16 rifles, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, three foreign-made pistols with silencers, 10 hand grenades, a night-vision scope, and explosives. Afghanistan has not yet commented on the incident.
A pattern of escalating violence
This firefight is just the most recent flashpoint in what has become an increasingly volatile situation along the 1,340-kilometer frontier separating the two countries.
The Tajik Border Troops said the latest clash was part of a series of security incidents along the Afghan frontier in recent weeks that have claimed more than a dozen lives this month, adding that Tajik forces have been placed on heightened alert amid repeated attempts by armed groups to cross the border.
The violence has also increasingly targeted Chinese interests in the region. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, a drone armed with grenades struck employees of a Chinese gold-mining operation in November, killing three and wounding one. Within days, another attack saw gunfire from Afghan territory kill two Chinese construction workers and injure two more.
Following the attack, the Chinese Embassy in Dushanbe in November urged its citizens to leave the region and pressed both Tajikistan and Afghanistan to address the security breakdown.
Why the hostility?
Tajikistan has steadfastly refused to recognize the Taliban government that took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, with Dushanbe repeatedly expressing concern over the presence of armed groups near its frontier.
President Emomali Rahmon has been outspoken in his criticism, accusing the Taliban of mistreating ethnic Tajiks and providing sanctuary to groups that threaten Tajikistan's stability.
The geographic and political realities make the frontier remote, difficult to patrol, and serve as a corridor for drug trafficking and militant movements.
Tajikistan has urged Afghanistan to ensure tighter control of border areas to prevent cross-border movement of militants, while Afghan officials maintain that they are committed to preventing their territory from being used to threaten neighboring states.
Who’s behind the attacks?
While Tajik officials describe the attackers as "terrorists," no group has claimed responsibility for the recent violence. Analysts from the Oxus Society and BBC Monitoring point to several possible culprits, naming Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) as the primary suspect for the November drone strike. The ISKP has conducted attacks on foreign nationals in Afghanistan as part of its strategy to undermine the Taliban's credibility as a security provider.
Additionally, Tajikistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs accuses the Taliban of sheltering Jamaat Ansarullah, an Islamist militant group composed mainly of Tajik citizens that seeks to overthrow Tajikistan's secular government.
![Afghan security personnel stand guard last July in Kabul. [Wakil Kohsar / AFP]](https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/7b0a57ef-9ab1-4e51-ad86-bf728d716b98-47001-afp__20-739_416.webp)
