DUSHANBE, March 17, 2014, Asia-Plus – Tajik border guards have reportedly killed two residents of Afghanistan’s northwestern Takhar province.

Radio Liberty’s Afghan Service reports that according to Takhar authorities, four residents of the village of Takhta Kul were catching fish on islands in the Amu Darya River on March 12 when Tajik border guards opened fire at them.  Two of them were killed and two others managed to escape.

Sunnatullah Timor, a spokesman for Takhar governor’s spokesman, was quoted as saying that the islands that appeared after the Amu Darya River that delineates the Tajik-Afghan border changed its course are not in the border area, and therefore, there was no any violation of the border.

Meanwhile Afghan news agency Pajhwok reports that an Afghan fisherman was killed by Tajik border guards in the same area last year.

At least six Afghan nationals have been killed by Tajik border guards during the current solar year on the charge of drug trafficking, Pajhwok reported on March 15.