DUSHANBE, March 31, 2014, Asia-Plus – radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service reports that after a diplomatic dispute over border violence, some checkpoints along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border have opened for the first time since mid-January.

Kyrgyz Border Service Chairman Raiymberdy Duishembiev told RFE/RL on March 31 that the Karamyk and Bordobo border crossings have started functioning fully.

Meanwhile, checkpoints at Kulundu and Kairagach are allowing residents who live close to the border to cross as pedestrians.

Other checkpoints still remain closed.

The Kyrgyz-Tajik border had been closed since an exchange of gunfire on January 11 injured several Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards.

The shootings were in a disputed area where Kyrgyzstan is constructing a new highway around a Tajik exclave inside Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyz authorities have suspended the highway construction since then and a joint Kyrgyz-Tajik commission has been working on border demarcation.