DUSHANBE, September 30, 2008, Asia-Plus – 50 women that gathered near the building of the regional directorate for combating organized crime in Gharm, administrative center of the Rasht district today morning allegedly demanded that the directorate chief Mirzokhouja Ahmadov should get rid of unsavory people, Mahmadullo Asadulloyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior (MoI), told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon.
“Ahmadov received them and during the meeting, the women expressed dissatisfaction with fact that there are some persons around him, who are not residents of the district, and said that they suppose that those persons have illegally stored weapons,” said the spokesman, “Today officers from the Rasht directorate for combating organized crime jointly with representatives from the Ministry of Interior (MoI), who are currently in the district to maintain public order during president’s visit to Rasht due on October 2-3, expelled those unsavory people from the district.”
President Emomali Rahmon is scheduled to pay a two-day working visit to the Rasht Valley in eastern Tajikistan from October 2-3. The purpose of the visit is for him to get acquainted with socioeconomic situation in districts of the Rasht Valley.
The issue of security and stability in Rasht has become topical after a February 2 incident in Gharm when the special police unit was attacked after it was dispatched to the Rasht district headquarters of the regional directorate for combating organized crime. Circumstances of that incident still remain unclear. According to one version, the police unit was going to arrange a meeting of the local police directorate, while according to other version, they were seeking to arrest the directorate chief Mirzokhouja Ahmadov but were fired upon by gunmen loyal to Ahmadov. The 40-year old commander of the special police unit, Oleg Zakharchenko, was killed and four policemen sustained injuries in the shoot-out.
Mirzokhouja Ahmadov was one of field commanders of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) in the Rasht Valley during the country”s civil war in the mid-1990s but was later appointed to a senior police post as part of a broader attempt at reintegrating former rebel leaders. He continues heading the regional directorate for combating organized crime as before and does not plead guilty.
