- Tajik forces killed three suspected militants crossing from Afghanistan.
- The Taliban say they are investigating jointly with Tajikistan.
- Kabul warns of attempts to damage bilateral relations.
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities said on Saturday they were working with neighboring Tajikistan to investigate a border clash earlier this week that killed five people, including two Tajik guards.
Tajikistan announced on Thursday that three members of a “terrorist” group had crossed “illegally” into the Central Asian country through the province of Khatlon, bordering Afghanistan.
Tajik security forces killed the three, but two border guards were also killed in the clash, Tajikistan’s national security committee said.
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said Saturday that “we have launched serious investigations into the recent ‘incidents’ on Tajik soil.
“I spoke with the foreign minister of Tajikistan and we are working together to avoid such incidents,” he said at an event in Kabul.
“We are concerned that some malicious circles want to destroy relations between the two neighboring countries,” the minister added, without giving further details.
Tajikistan shares a mountainous border of about 1,350 kilometers (839 miles) with Afghanistan and has had tense relations with Taliban authorities in Kabul, who returned to power in 2021.
Unlike other Central Asian leaders, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, who has been in power since 1992, has criticized the Taliban and urged them to respect the rights of ethnic Tajiks in Afghanistan.
According to Tajik authorities, at least five Chinese nationals were killed and several wounded in two separate attacks along the border with Afghanistan in late November and early December.
According to a UN report from December, a militant group, Jamaat Ansarullah, “has fighters spread across different regions of Afghanistan” with the main goal “to destabilize the situation in Tajikistan.”
Dushanbe is also concerned about the presence in Afghanistan of Daesh members in Khorasan.
