On Jan. 30, border guards in Tajikistan repelled armed intruders seeking to enter the country from Afghanistan, with the clash leaving three suspects dead. Less than two weeks earlier, on Jan. 18, Tajik forces killed four militants under similar circumstances. These were not isolated incidents. Rather, they came on the heels of a series of similar episodes, of which the most notable took place in November, when two consecutive attacks by militants entering Tajikistan from Afghan territory killed five Chinese workers involved in infrastructure and mining projects in the country.
Taken together, the incidents reflect a marked deterioration in security conditions along the roughly 900-mile frontier between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. At the heart of bilateral tensions is the presence in northern Afghanistan of Jamaat Ansarullah, a Taliban-aligned militant group composed largely of ethnic Tajiks. Dushanbe views the organization as a potential instrument for destabilizing Tajikistan.
Read the full article on World Politics Review.
Emil Avdaliani is a Research Fellow at the Turan Research Center.