A Tajik man was shot dead and several Tajiks and Kyrgyz were wounded in border clashes triggered by a dispute over road construction in Kyrgyzstan’s southwestern Batken province, authorities on both sides said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

The clashes broke out on Wednesday after the Kyrgyz authorities attempted to restart work on a road project which crosses Vorukh, an enclave of about 30,000 ethnic Tajiks, in the Ferghana Valley.

Three former Soviet republics - Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan - have struggled for three decades to agree borders in the Central Asian valley, which is home to several ethnic groups.