BISHKEK. Jan 29 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have agreed on the schedule and routes of the pullout of border guard and police reinforcements deployed along the frontier after the armed incident of January 11.
"The withdrawal of the reinforcements began in the evening of January 28," Kyrgyz State Border Service spokesperson Gulmira Borubayeva told Interfax on Wednesday.
It will take several days to return the reinforcements to their permanent positions and the border will be protected regularly after that, she said.
The Batken regional police department said the situation along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border in the area of the Ak-Sai village was fully controllable.
Border guards engaged in a gunfire exchange in the vicinity of Ak-Sai in the Batken region in southern Kyrgyzstan and the Vorukh enclave, Tajikistan. Six servicemen of Kyrgyzstan and two of Tajikistan sustained injuries.
The police also said that the construction of the Koko-Tash-Ak-Sai-Tandyk road, an over 20 kilometer route bypassing the Tajik enclave, had never stopped. Other sections of the road are being constructed, the police said.
The bypass project triggered the shootout between Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards. The area is listed amongst Kyrgyz-Tajik border sections, which have yet to be delimitated, which is a source of constant disputes about its territorial belonging.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are expected to hold a joint inquiry into the incident on January 11.
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha came to Bishkek on Wednesday to discuss the Kyrgyz-Tajik border incident. Both republics are CSTO member states.