Two Tajiks killed by mine near border with Uzbekistan

A Tajik married couple collecting wood died after stepping on a landmine near the border with Uzbekistan, officials said Monday.

The mine was left over from the 1992-97 civil war in the east of the former Soviet republic, DPA reported.

Tajikistan announced in March that it was unable to demine all of the conflict area, as it was supposed to do under the anti-mine convention signed in Ottawa in 1997.

Some 354 people have been killed by mines in the region since 1992, according to official Tajikistan figures.