DUSHANBE, March 2, 2015, Asia-Plus:
February 2 – The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) completed registration of candidates who will compete for 22 seats in the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower house of parliament) from party lists;
– Tajik Minister of Agriculture Qosim Rohbar received a delegation of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), led by the NDRC deputy head, Mr. Wang Xiaotao. Prospects for bilateral agrarian cooperation between Tajikistan and China were reportedly a major topic of the meeting.
February 2-5 – The European External Action Service Head of Central Asian Divisions Mr. Toivo Klaar was on an official visit to Tajikistan. Toivo Klaar held talks with Tajik officials to discuss the EU-Tajikistan bilateral and multilateral cooperation for 2014-2020, security issues, including the impact of developments in Afghanistan on Central Asia, economic relations, and water, hydropower and energy issues. Mr. Klaar had also met the representatives of civil society in the country.
February 3 – Umarali Quvvatov, the leader of the Tajik opposition organization Group 24, was freed from the Istanbul detention facility. Umarali Quvvatov was detained in Istanbul on December 19, 2014. Tajik authorities accuse Quvvatov of embezzling 6 million somoni (equivalent to more than 1.26 million U.S. dollars) while Quvvatov says the accusations leveled against him are politically motivated;
– The U.S. Embassy’s Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) donated military tents and a sport utility vehicle to the Border Forces Main Directorate of the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan. This donation, which totaled approximately $100,000, is intended to improve the technical capacity of Tajikistan’s Border Forces in securing the borders of Tajikistan;
– Firdavs Sohibnazarov, head of the branch of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) in the Khuruson district (Khatlon province was apprehended and sent to a detention center in the city of Qurghon Teppa. Authorities said the accusations against him were linked to the “disappearance of $43,000” from a bank where Sohibnazarov used to work as a financial expert.
February 4 – The deputy chairman of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security, Mansur Umarov, told parliament that Pakistan”s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had transferred one of the leaders of Jamaat Ansarullah, Tajik national Qamariddin Ahrorov, to Tajik authorities. Umarov did not specify the date of the transfer. He claimed members of the group were planning terrorist attacks in Tajikistan”s territory. Jamaat Ansarullah wasn banned in Tajikistan in 2012.
February 5-7 – Deputy Assistant Secretaries of State Daniel N. Rosenblum and Steven Feldstein visited Dushanbe. During their visit, they had consultations with representatives of the Government of Tajikistan on a range of bilateral and international issues, as well as meet with civil society organizations.
February 7 – An operation carried out by police officers in the Vose district (Khatlon province) led to the arrest of the 23-year-old resident of the Hamadoni district (Khatlon) province, Khurshed Nasimov. 84.050 kilograms of raw opium and 1.950 kilograms of heroin were found hidden in his Niva.
February 8 – The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) concluded registration of candidates running for election to the lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of the parliament (Majlisi Oli) in single-mandate constituencies.
February 9 – Eleven residents of the northern Sughd province were detained on suspicion of being adherents of a banned branch of Islam. Investigators said they are followers of the Salafi branch of Islam, which was branded as extremist and banned in Tajikistan in 2008.
February 9-11 – Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldayev was on an official visit to Tajikistan. He held talks with a number of high-ranking Tajik state officials to discuss issues related to expanding bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the fields of politics, economics, regional security, science and culture were a major topic of the meeting. A special attention was paid to demarcation and delimitation of disputable parts of Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan.
February 9-11 – The U.S. Embassy’s Office of Military Cooperation and the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies hosted the third annual UN Peacekeeping Development Workshop in Dushanbe. This year’s workshop brought together peacekeeping experts from the United States, Germany, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan to discuss national-level strategic issues related to development, training, and deployment of Tajik forces on a UN peacekeeping mission.
February 10 – A Tajik nurse Gulrukhsor Rofiyeva, who was kidnapped in Yemen’s Marib province in October last year, was released. Rofiyeva, 36, went missing on October 29.
February 11 – The Islamic Revival Party (IRP) activist Jamoliddin Mahmoudov, who is member of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) from the IRP, was detained on suspicion of illegal weapons possession. The State Committee for National Security said police found two Makarov pistols and ammunition in the home of IRP member Latif Sardorov in the western Hisor district. Sardorov reportedly told investigators that Mahmoudov had given him the pistols in 1996 and asked Sardorov to keep them for him.
February 13 – A court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district ruled that the IRP activist Jamoliddin Mahmoudov, who is member of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) from the IRP, can be held in detention for two months;
– By president’s decree Sadriddin Sharipov was relieved of his post of Director of the Tajik Aluminum Company in connection with transfer to other job. He was replaced with Abdurahmon Jourayev, formerly head of the foundry at the Tajik aluminum smelter.
February 16 – A court in Khujand, the capital of the northern province of Sughd sentenced 13 members of Jamaat Ansarullah, aged 26 to 42, to prison terms between nine and twelve years for recruiting residents of the province to fight alongside militants in Syria. The men were arrested in November and charged with organizing a criminal group, illegal weapons possession, and membership in Jamaat Ansarullah.
February 17 – A meeting of Tajikistan’s Security Council was held. Speaking at the meeting, President Emomali Rahmon expressed concern over the growth of extremism in Tajikistan, particularly among young people. In order to combat the problem of extremism, Rahmon said that it was crucial for law-enforcement agencies to “work more closely and effectively with civil society and the clergy to prevent the involvement of young people in various terrorist and extremist groups.”
February 18-19 – Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda was on a working visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran. He held talks with his Iranian counterpart Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli and the Iranian Police Commander Brigadier Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam to discuss state and prospects of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan in combating terrorism, extremism, and trafficking in drugs and weapons. Rahimzoda also visited NAJA University of Police (NUP).
February 20-28 – The first exhibition of Indian goods took place in Dushanbe.
February 22 – Three people were killed in an avalanche occurred on the Shahriston Pass in the northern province of Sughd.
February 23 – Tajikistan celebrated the 22nd anniversary of formation of Tajikistan’s Armed Forces;
– One person was killed and one another was injured as an avalanche hit a minivan in the northern Sughd province. The tragedy took place in the Ayni district.
February 24 – The process of registration of international election observers with Tajikistan’s Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) was completed
February 24-26 – An expert workshop on promoting regional co-operation in Central Asia and effective responses to the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters took place in Dushanbe. This is the first workshop of its kind in Central Asia, organized by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan and the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, bringing together some 150 government and civil society experts from a wide range of OSCE participating States and Partners for Cooperation.
February 26-27 The First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Army General Arkady Bakhin, was on a two-day working visit to Dushanbe. He reportedly discussed with high-ranking Tajik state officials military and technical cooperation between the countries and the progress of implementation of agreements reached earlier.
February 27 – Power rationing introduced in rural areas of Tajikistan in October last year was lifted. Measures rationing electricity supplies seek to curb the country”s rising electricity consumption;
– Tajik Deputy Foreign Minister, Nizomiddin Zohidi, met here with Lieutenant-General Muhammad Ahsan Mahmood, Chairman of the Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) Board. The two reportedly discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Pakistan.
