SAMARKAND /Uzbekistan/, November 11. /TASS/. Moscow renders substantial assistance to Dushanbe in strengthening the Tajik-Afghan border and specifically delivers military hardware and shares air reconnaissance data, a source in diplomatic circles told TASS on Monday.
The diplomatic source thus commented on the attack carried out by gunmen of the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) on a Tajik border post on November 6.
"We are rendering direct assistance to Tajikistan on a constant basis and we have an intensive process of providing the army of Tajikistan with modern armament and weapon systems, including special hardware that is capable of monitoring the situation along the border. We know that the Tajik side is using some of this special hardware for strengthening border security," the diplomatic source noted.
"We are also supplementing our efforts with air reconnaissance and air patrols involving our helicopters on the territory of Tajikistan and sometimes the forces and resources of the Russian air base in Kyrgyzstan," the source specified.
Complex border
The extremists’ recent attack on the border post has stirred up the region and come into the focus of the Tajik and Uzbek security services, the diplomatic source said.
‘They are now analyzing the circumstances of what has happened and are determining its causes and the contact of the militants who attacked the border post with Afghan radical and extremist organizations," the source went on to say.
"The Afghan side denies any involvement on this score. It is important to really analyze the details and understand the source of the threat and its scope," the diplomatic source said.
The Afghan-Tajik border is 1,500 km long and the border area has complex terrain. All these factors considerably complicate its protection and enable Afghan drug couriers to penetrate Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Region through "goat paths," the diplomatic source pointed out.
"This is also dangerous because a drug courier who moves towards Central Asia gathers information along the route, checks border guard forces for their vigil and then shares this data with terrorists and various types of radical extremist structures," the diplomatic source added.
The press center of the Border Guard Forces of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security reported on November 6 that an armed group of 20 gunmen attacked an outpost on the Tajik-Uzbek border near Rudaki, some 50 km to the west of Dushanbe. During an operation conducted by security forces, 15 gunmen were killed and five others were detained. One soldier of the Border Guard Forces and another staff member of Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry were killed in the effort.