Work on bringing order to the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region will be continued but law-abiding citizens do not need to worry, the chief of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Saymumin Yatimov, noted at a meeting of the GBAO interagency commission in charge of providing law and order in the region, which took place in Khorog, the capital of GBAO, yesterday.
“Over the last month, 183 firearms and 4,300 ammunition have been confiscated from population in the region," SCNS said, according to the Akhbor program of GBA regional TV channel Badakhshon.
Yatimov noted that the work of confiscation of the illegally possessed weapons and detention of wanted suspects will be continued but law-abiding citizens do not need to worry.
Tajik chief prosecutor, Yusuf Rahmon, for his part, noted at the meeting that if more than 71 million somoni provided to local population in loans are not repaid in the near future, criminal proceedings will be instituted against the persons receiving those loans.
GBAO governor Yodgor Fayzov noted that one month is not enough to address the situation in the region. “We will implement president’s instructions without fail but it takes time,” Fayzov said.
The GBAO interagency commission was set up on September 15. Its members include representatives of power-wielding structures and leadership of the region.
Recall, President Emomali Rahmon visited GBAO’s administrative capital, Khorog, on September 15 and harshly criticized the work of local law enforcement authorities and gave them one-month deadline to address the situation in the region, especially in Khorog, and implied that more robust measures could be adopted if he was dissatisfied with the results.
Rahmon said without naming them that around five or six “criminals” were at the root of the region’s ills.
Concerning troops brought to Khorog for a ceremonial parade, Emomali Rahmon indicated that even the military could be deployed.
A range of personnel changes were made in the region. By president’s decree chairperson of the GBAO regional court, chief of GBAO police, chief of Khorog traffic police department as well as heads of Khorog and Shugnan and Roshtqala districts were fired.
The governor of GBAO, Shodikhon Jamshed, managed to hold onto his post until October 1, when he was replaced by Yodgor Fayzov.
The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region accounts for some 45 percent of Tajikistan's territory, yet only about 220,000 of Tajikistan's 9 million people live there.
