DUSHANBE, May 25, Asia-Plus - Tajikistan’s Ministry of Interior (MoI) has provided aid to families of servicemen that were killed in a special operation in Batken (Kyrgyzstan) against a group of gunmen who entered southern Kyrgyzstan from Tajikistan on May 12 this year.

The MoI source has told Asia-Plus that Deputy Tajik Interior Ministry, Ramazon Rahimov, and Head of the MoI Department for Combating Organized Crime, Mahmadsaid Juraqulov, Tuesday [May 23] met in Batken with Sultan Aijigitov, Chairman of the Kyrgyz region of Batken.  They handed over food and financial aid for families of servicemen that were killed in a special operation in Batken.  According to the source, the assistance included 1,800 kilograms of wheat flour and 700 kilograms of rice.  Besides the food assistance, the families will receive US$100 each, the source said.  

As it had been reported earlier, an armed group numbering more than six people on the night of May 11-12 attacked the Tajik border-crossing checkpoint “Lakkon”.   As a result of skirmish, three Tajik border guards were killed.  The assailants seized 19 sub-machine-guns, one machine-gun and cartridges.  They headed to the Kyrgyz region of Batken.  When their Opel overturned, they hijacked a Mercedes Benz, killing the driver.  Along the way to Osh , 100 kilometers of Batken, the gunmen attacked the “Ak-Turpak” unit of the Kyrgyz border guards and customs officers in the Kadamzhai district, killing two border guards and injuring one customs officer. One Kyrgyz serviceman was killed and one another was injured in a special operation of the joint operation by Tajik and Kyrgyz power-wielding agencies to eliminate the gunmen rising a death toll among Tajik and Kyrgyz servicemen to six.