KHUJAND, October 5, Asia-Plus – A military court in Khujand has sentenced four servicemen at frontier post Lakkon at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in Isfara to lengthy terms in jail for negligence.
The Sughd military court on October 3 ruled that Senior Lieutenant Nazrullo Safarov be given 10 years and three enlisted soldiers, Gulmurod Mirzoyev, Mahmadiso Ikromov and Mirjamol Rustamov, 9 years each.
Judge Muslim Khudoiberdiyev, who took in the trial, told Asia-Plus that Safarov, Mirzoyev and Ikromov have been charged with abuse of office, negligence, an attempted crime and theft committed by a group of persons. Rustamov has also been charged with violation of the rules of the border service, according to him.
The trial began on September 19.
He said that the servicemen were absent on the night of May 11-12, when a group of gunmen attacked the frontier post. “By Safarov’s order, Mirzoyev and Ikromov took with them five other soldiers and left the post to steal logs from the Kyrgyz border village of Karabag,” Khudoiberdiyev said.
A source in the military court noted that the servicemen were absent on the night of May 11-12, when a group of gunmen attacked the frontier post. “By Safarov’s order, Mirzoyev and Ikromov taking with them five other soldiers left the post to cut trees for selling,” the source said.
An armed group of more than six people on the night of May 11-12 attacked the Lakkon post. As a result of the skirmish, two Tajik border guards were killed and another was injured. The assailants seized 17 submachine guns, one machine gun and cartridges. They headed to the Kyrgyz region of Batken. When their Opel overturned, they hijacked a Mercedes Benz, killing the driver. Along the way to Osh, 100 kilometers from Batken, the gunmen attacked a unit of the Kyrgyz border guards and customs officers near the village of Pungon, killing two border guards and injuring one customs officer.
