As a result of skirmishes between security personnel and "terrorists" in a restive region of Tajikistan bordering Afghanistan and China, nine persons have been killed, and twenty have been injured.

Wednesday, in the eastern area of Gorno-Badakhshan, members of "organised criminal groups" armed with firearms and Molotov cocktails attacked security officials, according to the interior ministry.

According to the report, one security officer was murdered, and 13 were critically injured during the attack.

The government stated that the attack occurred during an "anti-terror operation" after 200 armed individuals barricaded a motorway along the Afghanistan border.

The ministry stated that eight "militants" were killed, eleven were wounded, and more than seventy "active members of a terrorist group" were captured due to the operation.

Aid from international "terrorist organizations."

In an earlier statement, Tajik officials alleged that the militants had acquired guns and support from international "terrorist organisations" and foreign mercenaries, accusing them of subverting the country's constitutional order.

Since the outbreak of a five-year civil war immediately after the Central Asian republic achieved its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the region has been plagued with conflicts.

Gorno-Badakhshan is a linguistically and ethnically diverse territory where rebels battled government forces during the conflict.