The first half-year of 2018 has seen 17 engagements between Tajik border guards and armed drug smugglers on the Tajik-Afghan border, according to the Main Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security (SCNS).

As a result of skirmishes, seven drug traffickers have been killed and twenty-one others have been detained.   

More than 1,100 kilograms of drugs have been intercepted on the Tajik-Afghan border over the report period.

A totaled reportedly included 70.2 kilograms of heroin, some 340 kilograms of raw opium, some 536 kilograms of hashish, some 184 kilograms of cannabis and more than 125 kilograms of precursors.

Over the same six-month period, Tajik border guards seized 14 firearms, 3 explosives and 443 bullets of different calibers, Muhammad Ulghkhojyaev, a spokesman for the Main Border Guard Directorate, told Asia-Plus today morning.