BISHKEK. Sept 18 (Interfax) - Kyrgyz servicemen stationed on the border with Tajikistan are on alert, a spokesman for the Kyrgyz State Border Service told Interfax on Wednesday.
"The agency's forces are on alert, and stability is being maintained in the Kyrgyz-Tajik sector of the state border," the spokesman said.
Border checkpoints are operating normally with the exception of the Kulundu motor vehicle checkpoint, where Tajikistan has suspended citizens of the two countries from crossing the border. "Meanwhile, there are no restrictions on citizens of third countries passing through this checkpoint," he said.
On Wednesday, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov visited Bishkek City Hospital No. 4 where ten people hurt in the shootout on the border with Tajikistan on September 16 were admitted, the presidential press service said in a statement.
"The president wished the soonest recovery to the injured. They received financial assistance on the president's behalf," the press service said.
One Kyrgyz border guard was killed, and 13 persons, including seven servicemen, were injured in a shootout on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border near the village of Maksat in the Batken region of southern Kyrgyzstan on September 16.
A spokesman for the Kyrgyz State Border Service told Interfax that Tajikistan was the first to fire weapons, initially at the Kyrgyz Maksat border post and then at the Sai temporary border post in the Leilek district of the Batken region. Kyrgyz border guards returned fire on Tajik territory.