ALMATY, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Five people have been killed and five more injured in two attacks launched from neighbouring Afghanistan over the past week, Tajikistan’s presidential press service said on Monday.
Tajikistan, a mountainous former Soviet republic of around 11 million people with a secular government, has tense relations with the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.
Tajik authorities, who have previously warned of drug smugglers and illicit gold miners working along the remote frontier, said last week that three Chinese citizens had been killed in a drone attack launched from Afghanistan.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon’s press service said that Rahmon had met with the heads of his security agencies to discuss the situation and ways to strengthen border security.
It said that Rahmon: “strongly condemned the illegal and provocative actions of Afghan citizens and ordered that effective measures be taken to resolve the problem and prevent a recurrence of such incidents.”
There was no immediate response from the authorities in Afghanistan to a comment request about the Tajik statement.
(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Felix LightEditing by Andrew Osborn)
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