BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz officials say six people have been detained for illegally crossing the border from Uzbekistan.
The State Border Guard Service said on March 3 that five Uzbek citizens and one Kyrgyz citizen had been detained in two separate incidents in the southern region of Batken of March 2.
Last month, seven Uzbek citizens were detained by Kyrgyz border guard service in three similar incidents.
Many parts of the borders between the five Central Asian countries have remained in dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In recent months, the tension along Kyrgyz-Uzbek and Kyrgyz-Tajik borders have intensified after outbreaks of violence involving residents and border guards from all sides.