DUSHANBE, September 26, 2013, Asia-Plus — During his visit to the Rasht district (eastern Tajikistan), President Emomali Rahmon has met with Mirzokhouja Ahmadov, former field commander of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) and ex-chief of the regional body empowered to combat organized crime in Rasht Valley.
According to one of relatives of Mirzokhouja Ahmadov, the meeting took place in Belgi, the native village of Mirzokhouja Ahmadov.
The president reportedly got acquainted with farming unit of Mirzokhouja Ahmadov and called on him to provide assistance to the boarding school for orphans and children from vulnerable families in the Navobod settlement.
“We hope this meeting will promote further development of the authorities’ confidential attitude toward us,” one of supporters of Mirzokhouja Ahmadov told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Ahmadov was one of field commanders of the United Tajik Opposition during the country”s civil war in the mid-1990s and he was later appointed to a senior police post as part of a broader attempt at reintegrating former rebel leaders. He was relieved of his post of head of the Interior Ministry”s department for fighting organized crime in Rasht in February 2008 after a fatal attack on a special police unit in Rahst. The special police unit was attacked on February 2, 2008 after it was dispatched to the Rasht department for fighting organized crime. The 40-year old commander of the unit, Oleg Zakharchenko, was the only person killed, although several policemen sustained injuries in the shoot-out.
In 2010, after negotiations with the authorities, Mirzokhouja Ahmadov, started cooperating with the country”s security forces to eliminate the militant groups of Alovuddin Davlatov (Ali Bedaki) and Abdullo Rahimov (Mullo Abdullo), who were accused of involvement in organizing the attack on the Defense Ministry”s convoy in September 2010, as a result of which 28 soldiers and officers were killed.
