DUSHANBE, July 21, Asia-Plus -- The REGNUM news agency referring to Uzbekistan’s National Security Service (SNB) has reported that a man whom the Uzbek security authorities claim Tajik authorities had smuggled across the border with a view of to performing terrorist acts was arrested in Uzbekistan on July 20.   

According to REGNUM, the man, whom the SNB identified as Furqat Tuyghunov, allegedly said that a senior official at Tajikistan’s Security Ministry Rustam Mahmudov had entrusted him with this mission.  He reportedly told investigators that he had been supposed to kill certain persons on the territory of Uzbekistan.  

 In the meantime, Sabzali Choriyev, he head of Tajik Security Ministry center for public relations, has denied the Uzbek report as “unfounded and slanderous.”  “Most likely, it is the next false report of the Uzbek special services,” Mr. Choriyev said.  “The report will be investigated and we will inform you of the results in near future,” he added.  

            It is not the first case when the Uzbek special services claim arrest of Tajik agents on the territory of Uzbekistan.  As it had been reported earlier, a pro-government Uzbek website, press-uz.info, on June 22 reported that an ethnic Tajik had been arrested in the Uzbek southern region of Surkhandarya and confessed to having been entrusted with mission to assassinate several people in Uzbekistan.  Tajik law enforcement authorities have denied that report as “groundless.”