- Tajikistan has tense relations with the Taliban.
- In recent months there have been several border clashes.
- A Chinese worker was murdered last year.
Three Chinese workers in Tajikistan were killed in an attack launched from Afghanistan near the border, Tajik authorities said Thursday.
Tajikistan has strained relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan and several border clashes have broken out in recent months.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that an attack with drones and firearms hit workers at a Chinese company in the south of the country.
“The attack, carried out with firearms and a drone loaded with grenades, claimed the lives of three employees of Chinese nationality,” it said in a statement.
Dushanbe rarely comments officially on such incidents and did not say who it suspects carried out the attack.
Militants from extremist groups are active in the mountainous border region, which stretches about 1,350 kilometers (840 miles) between the two countries.
Muslim-majority Tajikistan, one of the poorest countries in the former Soviet Union, has been worried about possible outbreaks of extremism since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
President Emomali Rakhmon, in power since 1992, is an open critic of the Taliban and urged the group to respect the rights of ethnic Tajiks, who are estimated to make up about a quarter of Afghanistan's 40 million people.
At the same time, Tajikistan has cautiously engaged in some areas, including diplomatic meetings, opening markets in border towns and providing electricity.
Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that “criminal groups located in the neighboring country (Afghanistan) continue to commit acts aimed at destabilizing the situation in the border regions.”
Several Chinese companies operate in Tajikistan, particularly in mining and natural resources, often located in the mountainous border areas.
A Chinese worker was killed last year in a similar attack near the Afghan border.
