DUSHANBE, March 11, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Two officers from the Drug Control Agency (DCA) have been seriously wounded in an operation carried out on the outskirts of Dushanbe to arrest a group of drug dealers.  Drug dealers have managed to escape.

According to the counternarcotics agency, the incident took place in the settlement of Afghono, Dushanbe’s microrayon 33 yesterday evening.  “The drug control officers were carrying out an operation to arrest a group of drug dealers,” said the source.  “The drug dealers put up armed resistance and one of them threw a grenade at the officers.  As a result of explosion, two officers received serious shrapnel wounds.”  The drug dealers managed to escape, however, the criminals were identified and the search operation is under way, the source said.

We will recall that two officers from the Kulob counter narcotics directorate – Abdushukur Halimov and Umedjon Barotov -- were killed and three border guards were injured at the Tajik-Afghan border in late February.  As it had been reported earlier, some 30 gunmen attacked the border crossing in Khatlon’s Shuorobod district on the night of February 27, killing the officers and injuring the border guards.  According to DCA, three sacks containing different narcotic drugs were found at the scene of action.  Narcotic drugs found at the scene of skirmish were tested positive to mainly opiates weighing more than 60 kilograms.