Tajik security forces launch operation to hunt alleged terrorists who turn out to be … ordinary hunters

Residents of the central and western parts of Tajikistan have become more vigilant after a deadly attack on a frontier post in the Roudaki district that took place in the early morning of November 6.  In the morning of November 9 residents of Tursunzoda, some 60 kilometers to the west of Dushanbe, informed local power-wielding structures about suspicious armed persons in black seen in the Shirkent Gorge.  And then it has begun… 

Additional forces, including armored vehicles and combat helicopters, have been sent to Tursunzoda, an official source within the Tajik law enforcement authorities told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

Besides, armed checkpoints have been deployed along the Dushanbe-Tursunzoda highway and an air reconnaissance has been organized, the source said.

“As a result, it turned out that the “suspicious armed people in black” are local hunters,” the source said.  

According to him, the Uzbek side has been informed about the operation carried out by Tajik power-wielding structures in border area. 

After a while, all the checkpoints have been removed from the Dushanbe-Tursunzoda highways and additional forces have returned to places of permanent deployment.

All seventeen border crossing points (BCPs) along Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan operate in normal mode, the source added.  

Recall, the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) said on November 7 that police officer Bahrom Qosimzoda and border guard Izatullo Latifiov were killed in the early hours of November 6 when 20 militants of Islamic State (IS) terror group attacked the frontier post in the Roudaki district. 

The Interior Ministry of Tajikistan said on November 8 that the attack was carried out by IS militants, “mostly citizens of Tajikistan” who crossed into the country from Qala-e Zal district in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province on November 3.

As a result of an operation carried out by Tajik power-wielding structures, fifteen attackers were killed, while the remaining five attackers were captured, the SCNS said.

However, sources in Dushanbe and sources in other parts of Tajikistan told RFE/RL on November 8 that at least five more border guards were killed in the attack.  The sources reportedly said Dilovar Tolibov, Hofiz Hasanov, Naimjon Saidolimov, Ghanijon Davlat, and an unidentified border guard were buried on November 7.

Meanwhile, an online statement issued by the IS terror group on November 8 claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the IS militants had killed 10 Tajik border guards.