Mine blast on Uzbek border injures three

Three young Tajik women were seriously injured when they stepped on a mine in an unmarked section of the Tajik-Uzbek border, the Associated Press agency (AP) reported on Thursday. The issue of border mines has become a serious issue of contention between the neighboring countries since the Uzbek military laid mines along the border in August to prevent Islamic militants from crossing into Uzbekistan. Wednesday’s incident was indicative of the problem as much of the frontier between the two countries remains unmarked and 15 people had been killed by mines to date, the report said. During a recent meeting of the border guards of members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, Saidanvar Kamolov of Tajikistan warned Uzbekistan against laying any more mines, Tajik Radio reported on Friday. Uzbekistan had promised to take appropriate measures to resolve the problem, it added.

The governments of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and nearby Kyrgyzstan have faced incursions from Islamic insurgents - who allegedly want to carve out an independent, Islamic state in formerly Soviet Central Asia - in recent months, after tackling similar attacks last year, AP added.