evidence: Social tensions grew particularly in Isfara district of northern Tajikistan and in Vorukh, an enclave of 30,000 people in the middle of Kyrgyzstan. When private land ownership was introduced in Kyrgyzstan, some rented Tajik pastures were declared Kyrgyz citizens’ property. Gulhumar Zulpukarova, a pensioner from Ak-Sai, a borderland village in the Isfara valley, told The Third Pole that she fled to Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region in 2019 "due to Tajik attacks". She said shepherds from Kyrgyzstan have stopped Tajiks from grazing cattle in recent years, as relations have worsened. [...] Soronkulov said: "At that time, we researched the Ak-Suu river (which the Tajik call Isfarinka), which flows through the villages of Ak-Sai and Kok-Tash. This is a river which not only gives life to the fields, gardens and plots, but also to the peaceful co-existence of the Kyrgyz and Tajik peoples."