DUSHANBE, January 15, 2013, Asia-Plus — The Interior Ministry of Tajikistan has released an official statement regarding the yesterday’s incident at the traffic police checkpoint near the city of Konibodom in Sughd province.
The incident reportedly took place at about 3:30 pm. The traffic police officer stopped Opel-Astra with transit number plate for a routine document check.
Since the driver did not have a driving license, the traffic police officers made a record and decided to drive the car to the parking area but two persons that were in the car opened fire at the police officers while they were checking the car, the statement said.
As a result, one of the traffic police officers was killed on the spot while another one sustained serious wounds.
The statement says that one of detainees, whom it called “one of participants of a terrorist group,” was also killed in a gunfire exchange with the traffic police officers. The names of the gunmen are not disclosed in the interest of investigation.
Firearms and other ammunition were found at the scene of the incident. Operation for detaining other members of this terrorist group is on, the statement said.
We will recall that two young men allegedly involved in terrorist activity were arrested in the northern Sughd province last week.
According to the Interior Ministry, a special operation carried out by officers from the Interior Ministry’s office for Sughd province in the Mastchoh district overnight between January 9 and 10 led to the arrest of two alleged terrorists, who were hiding in one of residential buildings. One of officers from a special police unit was wounded during the operation. Police and security forces reportedly confiscated ammunition and weapons from the suspects.
Tajikistan saw a spike in militant activity in 2010 that led to the deaths of dozens of troops.
According to data of the Prosecutor-General’s Office, 144 people were arrested last year on suspicion of membership in extremist and terrorist organizations, including 36 members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, 11 members of Jamaati Tabligh, 76 members of the Islamic Movement of Turkestan, and 15 members of Jamaati Ansarullah.
