DUSHANBE, January 8, 2013, Asia-Plus - One Tajik border guard has been killed and at least one other has been wounded in an armed skirmish on the Tajik-Afghan border in Khatlon province.

An official source at the Main Border Guard Administration within the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) says the incident took place on January 1 but permission for an official distribution of information was given only on January 8.

According to him, servicemen from the Hamadoni border unit on a routine patrol spotted and tried to detain a group of Afghan armed drug traffickers numbering some twenty persons who were illegally crossing border river in the night of January 1.  “The trespassers, however, ignored a command to stop and opened fire,” said the source.  “One Tajik border guard was killed and one other wounded in the skirmish.  The wounded border guard was rushed to local hospital.”