Tajik Policeman Killed, 2 Wounded in Clash with Runaways

One Tajik policeman was killed and another two received gunshot wounds when they clashed with runaway militants in a remote region near the Afghan border, police said on Tuesday.

Police said the gunmen were part of a group of militants who escaped from a detention center last August, killing six prison guards.

"The clash took place on Monday in a mountain area, where two militants were hiding.

"One policeman was killed, another two were hospitalized with gunshot wounds," a Tajik interior ministry official told Agence France Presse.

"One of the wanted militants was killed and another one detained," he added.

Last year, the Tajik Supreme Court sentenced 25 militants to long prison terms on charges of "anti-government activity, (and) membership in the Islamist Movement of Uzbekistan"(IMU) terrorist organization."

Monday's clash was part of a campaign to recapture the escaped militants.

The Tajik authorities have managed to kill eight runaways over the past 11 months, police said. Another 16 have been caught and returned to the detention center, leaving one militant at large.

Five policemen have been killed and seven wounded in the operation to re-capture them, police have said.

The IMU was founded in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan in the mid-1990s with the goal of overthrowing Uzbek President Islam Karimov and creating an Islamic state based on Sharia law.

Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, shares a long and porous mountain border with Afghanistan.