DUSHANBE, February 17, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Six Afghan drug traffickers have been killed in a skirmish in Khatlon’s Shuroobod district, according to the main border directorate within the State Committee for National Security (GKNB).

Khoushnoud Rahmatulloyev, a spokesman for border service, told Asia-Plus yesterday afternoon that the skirmish between border guards and a group of armed Afghan drug traffickers occurred near of the border villages in Shuroobod on the night of February 10-11.  Six drug traffickers were killed in the skirmish.  No casualties among the border guards were reported, according to the spokesman.

More than 300 kilograms of various narcotics drugs, four sub-machine guns Kalashnikov and more than 450 bullets were found at the scene of skirmish.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted to probe into the incident and an investigation is under way, Rahmatulloyev said.