China, a major investor in several infrastructure projects in Tajikistan, may be financing the construction of a military outpost for the Tajik special forces near the international border with Afghanistan.
The move comes at a time when Dushanbe is getting increasingly worried about the challenges and threats emanating from the territory of Afghanistan after the return of Taliban.
At the same time, Beijing wants some resolute and practical measures to be taken to crack down on the growing Uyghur resistance in the region which it calls as the "international terrorist force" of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
The post will be located in eastern Tajikistan's mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region which borders China's western Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang and also Afghanistan's northeastern province of Badakhshan.
The large-scale operational and strategic exercises of the collective forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) which concluded in south Tajikistan last Saturday
IndiaNarrative.com had reported last month about Atta Mohammad Noor, leader of Jamiat-e Islami Afghanistan and the former governor of Balkh Province making public a list of 39 jihadist organisations which have become active after the return of Taliban in Kabul.
The politician had said that leaders of these organisations, including Haji Furqan, a citizen of Kazakhstan and a representative of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, are all based in Badakhshan.
Also Read: Terror sleeper cells wake up in Central Asia after Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan
After initial reports earlier this week which said that China is building a new military base in Tajikistan, the Tajik parliament made it clear that Beijing is only financing the construction of an outpost and no Chinese troops will be stationed at the facility.
According to SupChina, a New York-based, China-focused news platform, China already operates a military outpost in Tajikistan near the Afghan border and the Wakhan Corridor, the narrow strip of Afghan land that borders China.
"The existing outpost in manned not by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) but by the People's Armed Police (PAP), and is likely used for intelligence gathering purposes, not any kind of military operations or maneuvers," SupChina quoted Harvard scholar of Central Asia Nargis Kassenova as saying.
China, however, has denied the presence of any such base in Central Asia.
When asked on Friday about Tajikistan accepting a Chinese proposal to build a police outpost on the Afghan border – and that if Beijing is worried about security concerns in the region after the US left Kabul – the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that he is not aware of anything.
"I can also confirm that there is no Chinese military base in Central Asia," said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin in Beijing today.
Also Read: China shifts stance – now wants the United Nations to steer Afghanistan
