Tajikistan Prosecutor General: Border Attacks from Afghan Soil Aimed at Undermining China Relations

Habibullah Vahidzadeh, Tajikistan's prosecutor general, stated that recent attacks from Afghan soil into Tajik border areas were intended to damage relations between Dushanbe and Beijing. He attributed the targeting of Chinese citizens working on the border to "criminal groups."

Speaking at a press conference on Friday in Shamsiddin Shahin and Darvaz districts, Vahidzadeh referred to incidents late last year. "Chinese citizens are engaged in road construction. Who benefits from killing them? This shows that some individuals and criminal groups do not want peace or intend to destroy our relations with China," he said.

Vahidzadeh emphasized that Tajik authorities will investigate the targeting of Chinese workers within a criminal case framework. In one such attack, five Chinese citizens were killed using firearms, carried out from Afghan territory. "These murders were not committed by Tajik citizens," he added.

A prior armed attack on the fifth of Qaws (November/December 2025) in the border city of Shamsiddin Shahin in Khatlon province near Afghanistan resulted in three Chinese citizens killed and one wounded.

Earlier, Zafar Samad, head of Tajikistan's anti-narcotics agency, reported that in 2025, Tajik security forces engaged in 17 armed clashes along the Afghan border with Afghan drug traffickers.