Paul Goble
Staunton, Dec. 5 – Three outbreaks of violence along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border took place at the end of November, the first two between Tajik border guards and Taliban militants from Afghanistan and the third involving a drone attack from Afghanistan against a gold field in Tajikistan, as a result of which three Chinese workers died.
There has been violence off and on along that border for some time, and the latest round appears to reflect all the issues that have triggered such clashes in the past: water shortages likely to intensify as a result of Afghanistan’s new reservoirs, anger about Chinese workers in the region, and the interest of Russia in promoting closer ties between Moscow and Dushanbe.
Because detailed information on the clashes is now available and because the number of potential causes and possible participants is so large, reporting about them is both scanty and contradictory, a pattern that precludes any final judgment as to what took place and why. There are just too many possibilities.
Among the most useful reports highlighting this diversity are cronos.asia/centralnaya-aziya/tadzhikistan/border-tjk-afg-2025, stanradar.com/news/full/58819-kto-stoit-za-napadeniem-na-grazhdan-kitaja-na-prigranichnyh-territorijah-tadzhikistana.html, orda.kz/zoloto-pjandzha-iz-za-chego-streljajut-na-granice-tadzhikistana-i-afganistana-i-pri-chem-tut-kitaj-409842/, timesca.com/tajik-border-guards-clash-with-taliban-fighters-along-afghan-border/ and scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3334409/3-chinese-citizens-killed-tajik-afghan-border-clash.
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