ALMATY, Kazakhstan, March 29 (Reuter) Three people trying to slip into
Tajikistan from neighbouring Afghanistan were shot dead by Russian border
guards late on Friday, a guards' spokesman said.

Speaking by phone on Saturday, he said the incident had taken place some
200 km (125 miles) south of Dushanbe.

The dead had been trying to carry 60 kg (132 lbs) of narcotics into
Tajikistan, he added.

Russian border guards in Tajikistan say they have so far this year
intercepted over 600 kg (1,320 lbs) of drugs coming into the former Soviet
republic from Afghanistan.

The drugs opium and its derivatives make their way across
Tajikistan to other republics of the former Soviet Union and into Eastern
Europe.

Around 20,000 Russian peacekeepers and border guards serve in Tajikistan
a remote, mountainous Central Asian state which also borders China
viewing themselves as a bulwark against a possible advent of militant Islam
from Afghanistan.

Despite a ceasefire agreed last December between the secular government
and the country's united Islamist opposition, which ended a fouryear civil
war, Tajikistan remains unsettled as groups of fighters with unclear
loyalties and drug couriers continue to operate from bases in Afghanistan.