DUSHANBE, January 27, 2015, Asia-Plus -- Two drug traffickers have been killed in a skirmish on the Tajik-Afghan border in Khatlon province.

According to the Main Border Guard Directorate of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), the incident took place on the night of January 25.

Tajik border guards on a routine patrol reportedly spotted a group of armed people, who were illegally crossing the border river in the Farkhor district.  When the border guards tried to detain the trespassers, the latter opened fire at them.

As a result of the skirmish, two trespassers were killed while the remaining trespassers returned to the Afghan territory.  The killed trespassers were identified as residents of the Farkhor district Mahmadsharif Zubaydulloyev, 22, and Khurshed Amirov, 25.

On the same day, three Afghan nationals were detained while illegally crossing the border river in the Panj district.  Two of them are Afghan police officers and the third one is a cadet of the Afghan border guard training academy, the source said.