The conflict in which Tajikistan was least interested.
Author: Nematullo Mirsaidov, journalist
After fierce fighting between the military units of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan along the entire perimeter of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border, a new ceasefire agreement was finally reached. How long it will last - a day, a month, half a year - God knows, and those who have been engaged in provocations at the border for a long time, instilling fear into the souls of people living here, shedding the blood of innocent people.
The current conflict, instigated by the Kyrgyz military on the southeastern outskirts of the Tajik village of Vorukh, in a place called Kekh on September 14, 2022, has again brought grief to Tajik mothers who sent their sons to serve in the army that they will return safe and sound. There, in distant Vorukh, on the first day of the conflict, one Tajik border guard was killed, and two were wounded by bullets from the Kyrgyz military. Why do I say so convincingly that it was the Kyrgyz border guards who provoked the conflict?
First, none of them were hurt. Usually, those who do not expect an attack are vulnerable. It was in this situation that the Tajik border guards found themselves, who did not expect an armed attack by the Kyrgyz special forces "Boru". By the way, in the Kekh, which the Kyrgyz call Bulak-Bashi, military equipment and reinforcements can be transported along the mountain paths from Batken along the shortest road. It was along these paths that the IMU militants once walked when they attacked Batken in 1999.
Then, at the same time, provocations began in other parts of the border. At first, they fired from machine guns, then they began to use machine guns and mortars. For residents of the border villages of Tajikistan, the skirmishes that began in other parts of the border were like a bolt from the blue. Maybe the Kyrgyz also experienced the same feelings, but according to some reports, many citizens - women, children, and old people from nearby Kyrgyz villages were evacuated in advance, which also indicates that the provocations were planned in advance by the Kyrgyz side.
By the end of the day, the parties agreed on a ceasefire. As a result, in Chorkuh Jamoat alone, 11 civilians were taken to the zonal hospital No. 2, two of them with severe injuries. Four of the people were children aged 10-12.
The next day, on September 15, I and my two colleagues from Radio Ozodi and Sputnik of Tajikistan arrived in the village of Chorkuh and asked the representatives of the local population where we should go to talk to the victims and film and photograph the affected houses. We were advised to go to the Langar mahalla. They explained that many shells flew there. People were injured from the explosion, houses were destroyed. Luckily, Rano Kurbonova survived. She says: When I was returning from the hospital, where I went for an injection, I noticed that in the foothills there are a large number of Kyrgyz soldiers in black uniforms. I thought something was wrong. I ran home faster. As soon as I entered the yard, there was a deafening explosion, and all the windows flew out. And dust rose in one of the rooms and at the same time, there was a scream. I ran and saw my 12-year-old grandson with a bloody hand. I called the neighbors. The child was taken to the hospital. Then I realized that he was wounded in the arm by shrapnel from a shell.
In the Langar mahalla, we visited four more houses. There were casualties and destruction. Most of the shells came here from the direction of Pasky-Aryk, a Kyrgyz village where the most serious clashes took place. Since Langar is located 2-2.5 kilometers from Pasky-Aryk, it is unlikely that the shells were stray. They rather fired toward the local TV tower. And all the victims lived in the houses located around it. Another shell hit, as we were told, not far from the building of the local police department, in the house of a local resident, which is located 50 meters away. Then we also witnessed the damage to private cars parked near the shopping center and the administration building of the local state farm. Apparently, the infrastructure of the village was the target, but the Kyrgyz military knew very well that all the places they were shooting at were always overcrowded. Luckily, no one was hurt at the mall. However, at the bus station, the taxi driver and two passengers were injured by a shell explosion.
From everything seen and told, it follows that the Kyrgyz military pursued the goal of inflicting as much damage as possible and shedding more blood. And the fact that the conflict was timed to coincide with the opening day of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in Samarkand, the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov and the head of the State Committee for National Security Qamchybek Tashiev were fulfilling someone's order, the purpose of which was to undermine the image of the SCO as an organization gaining strength and authority.
And there is no doubt that the conflict was provoked by the leadership of Kyrgyzstan, since on the eve of the SCO summit, Japarov checked the readiness of the base of his Bayraktar drones bought from Turkey. And Kamchybek Tashiev, according to some reports, had a meeting with the military in secrecy. After all, it was precisely such meetings with the military that took place on the eve of the events of April 29-30, 2020. Coincidence or planned preparations for military action? And the evacuation of residents? Meanwhile, no one was evacuated from the Tajik settlements. Moreover, people lived daily lives.
