DUSHANBE, January 22, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik border guards have warded off an attempt by Afghan armed drug traffickers to smuggle a large amount of narcotics into Khatlon province.

According to the Main Border Troops Directorate within the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), border guards on a routine patrol spotted a group of Afghan armed drug smugglers numbering 14 persons that were illegally crossing the border river in the Shogon area of Khatlon’s Hamadoni district late Thursday (January 20).

“As a result of skirmish, two trespassers were killed, while others returned to Afghan territory,” said the source, “Two assault rifles Kalashnikov, some 200 kilograms of cannabis and 13 kilograms of raw opium were found on the spot.”  No casualties were reported among the border guards, he added.