BISHKEK. April 29 (Interfax) - Tensions flared on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border on Thursday morning, as weapons were fired and Kyrgyz citizens were injured, the press service of the Kyrgyz National Security Committee's Border Service said.
"At approximately 4:40 a.m. on April 29, in the area of Kocho-Boyu in the Batken district of the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan [...] there was an escalation of tensions," the statement said.
"The Tajik side started firing hunting guns at vehicles of Kyrgyz citizens that were passing by," it said.
Besides, Tajik citizens are hurling stones at Kyrgyz citizens and their homes, the Kyrgyz border guards said.
A number of Kyrgyz citizens were wounded, the border guards said.
Kyrgyzstan said earlier on Thursday that three Kyrgyz citizens were injured as a result of the conflict. For its part, the Tajik National Security Committee reported seven casualties of the conflict.
The police department of Kyrgyzstan's Batken region opened a criminal case over the incident on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
It was reported on Wednesday that the conflict was sparked by video surveillance cameras installed by the Tajik side on power transmission line poles. A Kyrgyz border detail and officers of the Batken regional police department demanded that the work stop.
The Kyrgyz-Tajik border sporadically sees conflicts between residents or border guards of the two countries. The main reason is the existence of non-delimited sections of the border, as it's impossible to tell where the border goes.
According to the Kyrgyz National Security Committee, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan share a 972-kilometer border, including 519 kilometers of the delimited border, and 375 kilometers of non-delimited sections.