Uzbek border guards detain 24 Afghan transgressors

Uzbek border guards detained 24 Afghan citizens who crossed the state border in order to illegally extract liquorice root on the Uzbek island of Aral Paygambar on the Amu Darya River.

On August 21, a group of Afghan citizens was spotted on the Aral Paygambar Island (Surkhandarya region in southern Uzbekistan), violating the state border and moored to the island by boats, Interfax reports citing the press service of the border troops of Uzbekistan's State Security Service.

They, as the press service notes, resisted the border guard who arrived at the scene, but all 24 violators were detained for identification and investigative measures.

Later, it was found that the reason for the border incident was the illegal extraction of liquorice root, which is growing in large numbers in the border zone of Uzbekistan.

"Currently, the territory of the Aral Paygambar Island is under the full control of the units of Uzbekistan's Border Troops," the report says.