The recent attack by the Islamic State terror group (IS, banned in Russia) on a border-crossing checkpoint in Tajikistan indicates that terrorist threat coming from Afghanistan remains real in the region, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said during a UN-Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) high-level meeting
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2019) The recent attack by the Islamic State terror group (IS, banned in Russia) on a border-crossing checkpoint in Tajikistan indicates that terrorist threat coming from Afghanistan remains real in the region, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said during a UN-Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) high-level meeting.
"Within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, we pay particular attention to the situation in Afghanistan. The recent attack of ISIS [IS] fighters on the outpost in Tajikistan proved again that terrorist threat in the region is real," Morgulov said on Tuesday.
On November 6, IS terrorists attacked the outpost of the Sultonobod border guard detachment in the Rudaki district on the Tajik-Uzbek border. As a result of an operation by law enforcement agencies, 15 militants were killed, five were detained. Two Tajik security officers were killed during the operation.
According to Morgulov, one of the sources that supports such acts of terrorism is drug trafficking.
The diplomat explained that Russia, along with other member states of the SCO, supports the aspirations of the Afghan people to peace and economic development.
Thus, at the initiative of Russia, the SCO resumed Afghanistan Contact Group sessions and had already organized two meetings this year. The members of the contact group adopted a roadmap envisaging collaborative effort aimed at developing cooperation in security, trade, economics and culture, Morgulov added.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization comprising eight member states: China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It also has four observer states � Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia � while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey are the organization's dialogue partners.
