At least five Chinese nationals have been killed and another five injured in Tajikistan over the past week in attacks originating from neighbouring Afghanistan, Tajik authorities and China’s embassy in the Central Asian nation confirmed on Monday.
China’s embassy in Dushanbe, the capital, has urged Chinese companies and personnel in the border region to evacuate immediately. The embassy reported that Chinese citizens were targeted in an armed assault near the Afghan border on Sunday. Earlier, on Friday, another attack; which Tajik officials said involved drones dropping grenades, had killed three Chinese citizens.
Tajikistan, a mountainous former Soviet republic of around 11 million people with a secular government, has long had tense ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities. The country has previously warned about drug traffickers and illegal gold miners operating along its remote frontier.
China, a major investor in Tajikistan, shares a similarly rugged and remote border with the country.
There was no immediate reaction from Afghan authorities to Tajikistan’s statement. However, Afghanistan’s foreign ministry last week blamed an unnamed group seeking to destabilise the region and said it would cooperate with Tajik authorities.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon’s press office said he met with the heads of security agencies on Monday to discuss measures to strengthen border security. Rahmon “strongly condemned the illegal and provocative actions of Afghan citizens” and ordered that effective steps be taken to prevent further incidents.
Tajikistan endured a brutal civil war in the 1990s after gaining independence from Moscow, during which Rahmon rose to power. The country maintains close ties with Russia, which hosts a military base in Tajikistan.
Millions of ethnic Tajiks live across the border in Afghanistan, and historically, Tajikistan has supported Afghan Tajiks opposed to Taliban rule.
