DUSHANBE: Tajikistan said Friday its border security officials had killed three "drug traffickers" crossing over from Afghanistan, in the latest clash on their mountainous border, AFP reported.

Tajikistan shares a 1,350-kilometer (840-mile) frontier with Afghanistan and has tense relations with the Afghan Taliban.

The Khovar state news agency quoted Tajik officials as saying that three of five “drug traffickers” were killed in the southern Khatlon region after showing “armed resistance.”

Sixth deadly incident

Two others “managed to escape towards Afghanistan under the cover of darkness.”

This is the sixth deadly incident on the border that Tajikistan has reported since November.

According to a count by AFP based on official Tajik data, 19 people have been killed in total.

These include Tajik border guards, Chinese workers, and what Dushanbe calls "smugglers" and "terrorists," without providing details.

Chinese condemnation

The Chinese embassy in Tajikistan on Nov. 28, 2025, strongly condemned the armed attack that occurred on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan on Nov. 26, which killed three Chinese nationals and injured another one, CGTN reported.

The embassy, in a statement, demanded that Tajikistan urge the relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate the attack in Shamsiddin Shohin district of Khatlon region and severely punish the perpetrators.

Taliban urged to act

Tajikistan has called on the Afghan Taliban to address the incidents to avoid destabilizing the volatile border region, AFP reported.

Tajikistan's longtime ruler Emomali Rakhmon has been critical of the Afghan authorities and has urged Kabul to respect the rights of ethnic Tajiks who account for a fourth of Afghanistan's population.

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Tajikistan says 3 'drug traffickers' killed on Afghan border