TASHKENT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2021) Uzbekistan has returned 53 Afghan border guards and militiamen who crossed into the country, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
"On June 23, 2021, 53 soldiers of the Afghan border troops and local militiamen with weapons crossed into the territory of Uzbekistan in the area of Shortepa county. After carrying out the necessary procedures of inquiry and investigative actions, these Afghan citizens were returned to their homeland," the ministry said in a statement.
It added that any attempt to cross the border illegally would be "severely suppressed," and voiced concerns over the surge in violence in Afghanistan.
The ministry urged the warring sides in the neighboring country to refrain from stoking tensions, and expressed its readiness to continue to provide humanitarian and economic aid to the embattled nation.
The statement comes as the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating significantly. On Tuesday, the Taliban ambushed a border crossing in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province near the Tajik border, killing, wounding, or capturing 100 personnel. The remaining Afghan forces retreated to Tajikistan and were given shelter by the Tajik government.
