DUSHANBE -- A court in Dushanbe has sentenced seven Tajik citizens to prison terms of between two and 27 years for a deadly attack on a post along the Tajik-Uzbek border in November.
Military Prosecutor-General Ikrom Zoirzoda said on July 14 that the trial at the Supreme Court of Tajikistan was held behind closed doors.
Tajik officials have said that 20 members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group attacked the Ishqobod border post on the frontier with Uzbekistan, located 60 kilometers southwest of Dushanbe in the Rudaki district in the early hours of November 6.
According to official statements, a police officer, a border guard, and 15 "armed masked attackers' were killed in the incident.
RFE/RL's investigative reports, however, revealed that the number of border guards killed in the attack was five. Tajik officials have neither rejected nor confirmed that information.
Tajikistan's Central Border Guard Directorate said at the time that the group had entered the Qabodiyon district in Tajikistan’s Khatlon region from the Qalai-e Zal district of Afghanistan's Kunduz Province on November 3.
However, Afghan border officials and RFE/RL's sources in Tajikistan's border-guarding service have denied that the attackers crossed the Afghan-Tajik border.
Islamic State has confirmed it was responsible for the attack.
Seven Tajik Men Get Prison Terms Over Deadly November Attack On Border Post
Several guards were killed in the attack on the Ishqobod border post in November 2019.