Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says a statement on a deadly attack on a border post in the Roudaki district in early November made by security official Monday has contradicted official reports about the incident.

In a statement delivered at a conference in Dushanbe, a representative of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Muhammad Sattarov, noted on November 25 that nine men, 11 women, and 13 children between the ages of 4 years and 15 years were among the attackers on a border post near Tajik-Uzbek border in the Roudaki district, about 60 kilometers southwest of Dushanbe, according to RFE/RL’s Tajik Service. 

That conflicts with statements from officials who said after the November 6 attack that 20 Islamic State (IS) militants entered Tajikistan from neighboring Afghanistan and attacked the border post, of whom 15 were killed and five were captured.

The officials also said that a police officer and a border guard were killed in the clashes.

However, sources in Dushanbe later said that at least five other border guards were killed in the attack.

The Islamic State or Daesh terror group on November 8 claimed responsibility for the border post attack, noting that the IS militants had killed 10 Tajik border guards. 

Meanwhile, citing sources close to the investigation, RFE/RL reported on November 12 that one of persons who attacked the border post had previously served as a soldier in the area where the deadly assault took place.

The suspected attackers allegedly planned to seize weapons at the remote, unremarkable border post in the Sultonobod area in the Roudaki district to potentially stage assaults on more prominent targets elsewhere.

The militants reportedly recruited three women -- identified as Rahbar Boqiyeva, Malohat Haidarova, and Zulkhumor Jumayeva -- to take part in the raid because they would rouse less suspicion and be used to distract the soldiers before the attack.

Shortly before the assault, Boqiyeva allegedly approached the checkpoint pretending to have lost her way and asked the border guard on duty for directions.

When the unsuspecting watch tower guard came down, Boqiyeva stabbed him with a knife, the sources said.  RFE/RL cannot independently confirm the claim.

The attackers spent several hours before the assault in the nearby villages of Lailikuya and Qizilnishon, before driving to the border posts in four vehicles, the sources said.