The Uzbek border guards took hostage a group of the Kyrgyz border guards headed by Colonel on neutral territory of the border zone in Batken (Kyrgyzstan).Tashtemir Eshaliev, the head of Defense and Regional Security Department at the regional state administration, told 24.kg news agency.
According to him, this morning a group of border guards from Kyrgyzstan crossed the border to the neutral zone to meet with counterparts from Uzbekistan, who defend the approaches to the border in Fergana Valley. They were going to talk about the opening of a transit corridor through the Uzbek enclaves of Sokh and Shakhimardan.
"However they failed to hold any negotiations. An armed detachment from Uzbekistan took our guards to an unknown destination for allegedly illegal crossing the border line. But this is a pure provocation. Now we are waiting for the chairman of the State Border Service of Kyrgyzstan to resolve the incident," said Tashtemir Eshaliev.
He stressed that as a whole the situation in the border area remains calm.
Uzbek border guards took hostage a group of Kyrgyz border guards
