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Tajikistan has a tense relationship with the Taliban, marked by multiple recent border skirmishes. Last year, a Chinese worker was killed in an attack originating from Afghanistan near their shared border.
Tajik officials reported that three Chinese employees were killed during an assault involving firearms and a drone loaded with grenades in the southern part of the country. Dushanbe typically refrains from issuing detailed public statements on such incidents and has not publicly suspected any particular group of perpetrators.
Extremist militants remain active in the rugged mountain border region, which stretches approximately 840 miles (1,350 kilometers) between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. As a Muslim-majority and among the poorest nations in the former Soviet Union, Tajikistan has expressed ongoing concerns about the potential rise of militancy since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021.
President Emomali Rakhmon, who has been in power since 1992, has openly criticized the Taliban, urging the group to respect the rights of ethnic Tajiks, who constitute about a quarter of Afghanistan’s population of around 40 million. Despite these tensions, Tajikistan has maintained a cautious engagement strategy, including diplomatic talks, opening markets in border regions, and supplying electricity across the border.
The Tajik government stated that criminal groups in neighboring Afghanistan continue to carry out actions aimed at destabilizing border areas. Several Chinese companies operate within Tajikistan, mainly in mining and natural resources, often located in the mountainous border zones. Last year’s deadly attack near the Afghan border underscores the ongoing security challenges faced in the region.
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