DUSHANBE, September 30, Asia-Plus — A group of 60-70 women gathered near the building of the regional directorate for combating organized crime in Gharm, administrative center of the Rasht district today morning.
According to the Ministry of Interior (MoI), they demanded that the chief of this directorate, Colonel Mirzokhouja Ahmadov, should hand in illegally possessed weapons. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes and the demonstrators then disbursed, the MoI source said.
As it had been reported earlier, President Emomali Rahmon is scheduled to pay working visit to districts of the Rasht Valley in eastern Tajikistan on October 2-3.
In the meantime, Mirzokhouja Ahmadov told Asia-Plus today that the women that gathered near his office today morning demanded that the regional directorate for combating organized crime should collect illegally possessed weapons from local population.
“They are our mothers and they want guarantees of stability and we support them,” Ahmadov said.
Commenting on the upcoming visit of President Rahmon to Rasht, he said that all necessary measures would be taken to ensure security of the president during his trip to the Rasht Valley. According to him, no forces will be able to hamper president’s visit to eastern Tajikistan.
He further added that the differences that had existed between him and the MoI administration had already been resolved.
“High-ranking officials of the law enforcement agencies are currently in the region to provide security of the two-day visit of the president to Rasht, and I, as chief of the regional directorate for combating organized crime, will do all in my power to ensure security of the president in our region,” Ahmadov said.
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.
It is to be noted that circumstances of this 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 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. “Those who sent the police unit to the region should be made answerable for this incident,” Ahmad said in one of his interviews with Asia-Plus.
