BISHKEK -- Uzbek border guards have shot to death two men at a disputed segment of the border with Kyrgyzstan.
The Kyrgyz Border Guard Service said the incident took place late on April 5 when a group of Kyrgyz men tried to illegally smuggle goods into Uzbek territory on horses.
When Uzbek border guards tried to stop them, the men reportedly refused and the standoff turned violent.
"Uzbek border guards had to use firearms to protect their lives and health, in which two men were lethally wounded, while others managed to escape back to Kyrgyz territory," the Border Guard Service said.
Officials said the men killed were 31 and 37 years old. They were both born in Uzbekistan but obtained Kyrgyz citizenship in 2012 and permanently resided in the village of Deires in Kyrgyzstan's Jalal-Abad region.
Officials from both countries agreed to investigate the incident separately.
According to the Border Guard Service, the bodies of the men were repatriated to Kyrgyzstan on April 6 and the situation along the border, where there have been many deadly clashes over the years, is stable.
The border areas in Central Asia have been subject to recurring disputes since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan meet.
Almost half of the 970-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border has yet to be demarcated, leading to frequent tension between the two countries.
