The Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Tajikistan has denied a report by Kyrgyzstan’s State Border Guard Service that a group of Tajik border guards allegedly entered a disputed area along the border in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region in the morning of November 28 and shot three times into the air as absolutely “baseless.”

Mohammad Ulughkhojayev, a spokesman for Tajikistan’s Border Guard Directorate, says the report released by Kyrgyzstan’s State Border Guard Service does not correspond to the facts.

According to him, Kyrgyz border guard were the first to fire warning shots.

“At 7:20 a.m. of November 28, a group of Tajik border guards on a routine patrol saw that Kyrgyz border guards stopped a car with Kyrgyz plate on the outskirts of the village of Min-Oruk in the Batken region.  Kyrgyz border guards shot sixteen times into the air when the car moved deep into Kyrgyz territory,” Ulughkhojayev said.

According to him, Tajik border guards fired three warning shots into the air.  No casualties were reported, Ulughkhojayev said.

“Border officials from the two countries held extraordinary discussions regarding the shootings and decided to investigate the incident,” the spokesman added.

Currently, the situation along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border is stable.      

Recall, Kyrgyzstan's State Border Guard Service said on November 28 that a group of Tajik border guards entered a disputed area along the border in the southern Batken region in the morning and shot three times into the air.

The Kyrgyz side reportedly fired once into the air in response.

Under the previous agreements, both sides must keep several dozen meters away from the disputed area.

Hundreds of kilometers of borders in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Shootings, blockades, and clashes have occurred frequently in the areas close to the disputed border segments.