DUSHANBE, July 12, 2008, Asia-Plus – Suspect in killing of Oleg Zakharchenko, commander of a special police unit, OMON, has been established, Tajik Prosecutor-General Bobojon Bobokhonov announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on July 11.
The chief prosecutor refrained from disclosing the suspect name “in interest of the investigation.” He noted that the suspect has not yet been taken into custody and an investigation is under way.
He vowed to ensure that those guilty of that crime will be punished. “Believe my words, words of the prosecutor-general that those guilty will be punished sooner or later,” the chief prosecutor said.
We will recall that the special police unit was attacked on February 2 this year 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 the head of the regional directorate for combating organized crime, 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.
