Residents of the Tajik exclave of Vorukh reportedly could not pass through the Kyrgyz village of Aksai for twelve hours as residents of the village were pelting stones at their cars.

Residents of the Aksai village began pelting stones at Tajik cars passing through the village yesterday evening, at about 8:00 pm, a resident of the Vorukh jamoat told Asia-Plus by phone today morning.  

“At first, their children began throwing stones at Tajik tractors carrying pebbles from the bank of the river.  Then adults joined them and began pelting stones at cars and fixed-route taxis moving from the city of Isfara to Vorukh,” the source said.   

According to him, glasses of tractors and fixed-route taxis were broken.  Fortunately, no injured was reported, according to the source. 

The cause of such actions of neighbors is unknown but probably there are some forces provoking such actions, the source added.  

Recall, the latest unrest erupted on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border on March 13 after Kyrgyzstan restarted work on a controversial road connecting Aksai and Tamdyk in the disputed section of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.

Two Tajik nationals were killed and more than 30 others wounded in two days of clashes.  Kyrgyzstan listed three injured on its side.

A disputed section of the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan reopened on March 18 following the successful conclusion of four days of bilateral talks.

Tajik border service argues that completion of the Aksai-Tamdyk road will lead to the stemming of a river and leave Vorukh without irrigation for its valuable apricot and walnut cash crops.

The Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan border remains one of the last undefined frontiers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).  Despite repeated incidents over the past several years, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan remain unable to settle their Fergana valley border.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been unable to agree on the location of the border they inherited when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.  As the population in the dense Ferghana Valley grows, it has become increasingly difficult to demarcate the contested sections, where valuable agricultural land often lies. 

The area at the focus of unrest among residents of border areas of the two countries lies on the jagged frontier where the east of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region meet.  Skirmishes have sparked between residents of Isfara (Tajikistan) and Batken (Kyrgyzstan) districts along the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border. Trouble periodically sparks around the Tajik exclave of Vorukh.

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