On November 25, hundreds of people rallied in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), after the murder of the 29-year-old Gulbiddin Ziyobekov by security forces, demanding that the authorities bring the perpetrators to justice.
On the same day, hundreds of people gathered to a protest at the Tajikistan Embassy in Dushanbe.
Tajikistan Ambassador to Russia Davlatsho Gulmahmadzoda received a group of protesters to find out what they want.
One of leaders of Pamiris youth in Moscow, Oraz Vazirbekov, says in his video message that the meeting was the preliminary one and “this does not mean that this is all.”
“We expressed our dissatisfaction with what is happening in the Pamirs. They have killed Gulbiddin Ziyobekov intentionally. We gave time for the perpetrators to be arrested and brought to justice. Our second demand is that the military checkpoints be removed in Khorog. Our third demand is that Internet communications be restored and never be cut off. Now every time when communications with the region is cut off, we will come to the embassy in the same quantity,” Vazirbekov noted.
According to him the ambassador promised them to convey their demands to the government of the country.
Vazirbekov also expressed gratitude to the Moscow authorities for giving the protesters the opportunity to gather at the embassy.
“We will wait for an answer. But let's say one thing that we're not going to wait for one or two months for promises to be fulfilled. We have not received answers to our questions yet, but we will ask. This won't work anymore,” Vazirbekov added.
Meanwhile, they write in social networks that it is planned to hold rallies in other countries as well, including the United States and Europe,
Recall, the incident took place on the morning of November 25. The GBAO prosecutor’s office confirmed that in the village of Tavdem in GBAO’s Roshtqala district, an operation was carried out by law enforcement agencies to capture Gulbiddin Ziyobekov, who was wanted on charges of taking hostages and inciting ethnic hatred. “During the operation, he put up armed resistance and began firing from a Makarov pistol, which he possessed illegally. The offender was wounded by return fire,” the message says.
Some eyewitnesses of the events claim that Gulbiddin Ziyobekov was shot in the head and died on the way from Roshtqala to Khorog.
A local official, on condition of anonymity, said that Ziyobekov should have been detained in connection with the beating of an employee of the prosecutor’s office in 2020. The prosecutor’s office claims that “Ziyobekov and several other young people took hostage the assistant prosecutor of the Roshtqala region A. Abirzoda on February 1, 2020, and tortured and beat him for eight hours.” Ziyobekov, according to local authorities, did not come to testify in this case.
According to one of the residents of the Roshtqala district Ziyobekov and other young guys beat the prosecutor’s office officer Abirzoda for offering an intimate relationship to a local young woman.
