DUSHANBE, October 15, 2010, Asia-Plus — Speaker of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Shukurjon Zuhurov, who is currently on working visit to Rasht Valley, has not conducted any negotiations with illegal armed groups in Rasht district, the source at the Rasht district administration told Asia-Plus today.
According to him, the speaker has been meeting with voters and getting acquainted with socioeconomic situation in Rasht district.
He added that armed groups of Mirzokhouja Ahmadov and so-called Mullo Sayriddin, totaling 27 people, surrendered to government forces three days ago already.
At present the surrendered militants are cooperating with government forces in hunting down Mullo Abdullo (Abdullo Rahimov) and Ali Bedaki (Alovuddin Davlatov), who are suspected of having been involved in an attack on a military convoy in Kamarob Gorge in Rasht district, the source said.
We will recall that at least 25 officers and soldiers of the Ministry of Defense were killed by unknown assailants in the deadly attack in Kamarob Gorge in Rasht district on September 19.
Former opposition field commander Mullo Abdullo, who turned 60 this year, rejected the General Peace Agreement singed between the government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) in 1997 and later joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Mullo Abdullo reportedly left for Afghanistan in 2000 where he fought alongside the Taliban and was detained by international forces in 2002. According to some sources, he spent several years in an Afghan prison and it is said that he illegally returned to Tajikistan in 2009.
Alovuddin Davlatov, also known as Ali Bedaki, is also former UTO field commanders. His brother Husniddin Davlatov, an activist of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) in Rasht district, who was arrested in Dushanbe on September 10, was shown on the Tajik national TV on September 20. He said he was arrested by government forces because he had supplied his brother, Alovuddin Davlatov, with explosives and military uniforms. Husniddin Davlatov added that his brother organized a training camp for local and foreign youth in which he taught them how to carry out terrorist attacks.
