Tajik Officers Killed On Border With Afghanistan

SHURABAD, Tajikistan -- Two Tajik antidrug officers have been killed and three Tajik border guards injured near the Tajik-Afghan border.

Local officials told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that some 30 gunmen attacked the border crossing at Sari Ghor in the Dashti Jam area of the southern Khatlon Province bordering Afghanistan on the night of February 27, killing the officers and injuring the Tajik border guards.

Officials say the murders may have been a retribution attack by drug smugglers.

Tajik border guards killed six Afghan drug smugglers and confiscated a large amount of drugs several weeks ago.

But local officials said they have no idea who the attackers were because they left nothing behind and returned to Afghan side of the border.