DUSHANBE, October 1. /TASS/. Tajikistan fears that the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan may trigger an escalation of chaos in the country and also provoke uncontrolled flows of refugees and drugs into the member-countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Tajik Interior Minister, Lieutenant-General Ramazan Rakhimzoda said on Wednesday.

“We cannot rule out that groups of terrorists and saboteurs may try to infiltrate the CSTO’s area of responsibility in refugee disguise,” Rakhimzoda told the meeting of the Coordinating Committee of CSTO law enforcers devoted to illegal migration issues.

Earlier, he told TASS in an interview that “one cannot but bear in mind that my country’s border with Afghanistan is longer than that of any other CIS member-state.” “It is 1,300 kilometers long and runs across mountain areas that are very hard to access. For purely objective reasons, it is not always well protected,” he noted.

Rakhimzoda said that “already now we have information about militants and saboteurs from various terrorist groups stationed very close to the border with Tajikistan. Whenever a convenient opportunity may offer itself, they may easily mix up with flows of illegal migrants.”

CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha is taking part in the Coordinating Council’s meeting.