Uzbek border guard shot dead on Tajik border

DUSHANBE, Nov 17 (Reuters) Tajik border guards accidentally shot dead an Uzbek colleague on the poorly demarcated frontier between the two Central Asian states, Tajik officials said today.

Shootings in the border area, a transit point for drugs smuggled from Afghanistan, are common but today's incident comes at a time of heightened tension between the two states who have in recent months traded accusations of espionage.

A statement from Uzbekistan's State Border Protection Committee said two shots were fired at sunrise yesterday from the Tajik side of the border, one of which hit and killed Uzbek border guard Asadullo Elmurodov.

A senior official in Tajikistan's State Border Protection Committee told Reuters seven Uzbek border guards had illegally crossed the frontier about 65 km (40 miles) west of the capital Dushanbe.

''They did not obey a warning signal from the (Tajik) servicemen, so a warning shot was fired,'' the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. ''Due to poor visibility in the pre-dawn light, one Uzbek border guard was killed.'' In Tashkent, a spokesman for the SNB security services, denied the Uzbeks crossed the border. ''This does not reflect reality,'' he said.

Russian news agency Interfax quoted a spokesman for an Uzbek court as saying today that five people, including three women who posed as prostitutes to get information from military officers, were handed jail terms of 15 to 20 years today for spying for Tajikistan.

The court could not be reached for comment on the report.

REUTERS PDM BD1728