DUSHANBE, February 5, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Tajik and Kyrgyz delegations has met in the Tajik northern city of Isfara to discuss issues related to demarcation and delimitation of disputed segments of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border, a source at the Sughd regional administration told Asia-Plus today morning.

According to him, the Tajik delegation members include Sherali Khairulloyev, Aide to the President of Tajikistan for Security Affairs, Khairullo Asoyev, Minister of Transport, and Mahmadtohir Zokirov, Chairman of the State Committee on Land Management and Geodesy.

Kyrgyz delegation is led by B. Abduraimov, an expert from the Secretariat of the Special Representative of the Government of Kyrgyzstan for Border Issues.

“Tajik delegation will try to persuade the delegation of the neighboring country to reopen border crossing points (BCPs) on mutual border as soon as possible,” the source said.    

We will recall that Tajik Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Tokon Mamytov, agreed in Bishkek on January 31 that the two countries'' working groups on border delimitation must expedite their activities.

Five Kyrgyz border guards, one Kyrgyz policeman, and two Tajik border guards were hospitalized with injuries on January 11 after tensions escalated into exchanges of gunfire along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.  The clash started when Tajiks protested Kyrgyzstan’s construction of a bypass road through a disputed area.  Tajikistan has requested to halt the construction of the road until the border is delimited.