Uzbek serviceman wounds Tajik border guard - agency

An incident took place at the Sarazm border post in Panjakent District [northern Tajikistan's Sughd Region] yesterday.

Asia-Plus learnt at the regional interior directorate that yesterday the Panjakent town interior division received a tip-off from a central hospital. It said that a soldier of unit No 2115 of the Tajik State National Security Committee's Border Troops had been hospitalized with a gunshot wound. The soldier was Viktor Andyulin, a 23-year-old resident of Dushanbe who had been stationed in Panjakent.

"Having arrived at the site, an investigation group managed to establish that while on duty at the border post on 4 November, Andyulin was wounded in a leg from a shot fired by an Uzbek border guard," a source said. "The serviceman of an Uzbek border unit fired a shot to Andyulin's side from a Kalashnikov assault rifle, as he [Andyulin] had allegedly crossed the state border line."

According to the source, the Panjakent prosecutor's office and the Tajik State National Security Committee are now investigating the incident in Panjakent.

Andyulin, who is in hospital, was called up to serve for the Tajik Military Service in May 2008.

Source: Asia-Plus news agency website, Dushanbe, in Russian 5 Nov 09

BBC Mon Alert CAU 051109 abm/akm

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