DUSHANBE, September 20, 2010, Asia-Plus — We hope that a September 19 attack on the government forces in Rasht district was the first and the last incident in the area and it will not provoke an armed conflict in the country, Umarali Hisaynov, the first deputy head of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) also IRP member in the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament), told Asia-plus today.
The IRP activist considers that the armed conflict in Rasht will not develop. “I visited the Rasht district recently and met with voters and local administrators. All of them said that they do want any conflict and they want peace and stability,” said Hisaynov, “When I was in Gharm (administrative center of the Rasht district), I could detect no trace of the possibility of the beginning of any armed conflict in the area. Especially after a meeting of the country’s law enforcement officials with former opposition commanders, people hoped that everything will be all right and peace will reign.”
He added that he today had telephone conversation with the Rasht chairman, who said that he did not know who and for what purpose attacked the government forces yesterday.
We will recall that a statement released by the Ministry of Defense yesterday evening says a military convoy was ambushed in the Kamarob Gorge in Rasht district, some 250 kilometers east of Dushanbe, on September 19, at 12:30 pm. 23 soldiers were killed and several others were wounded.
The Ministry of Defense considers that the attack was committed by the armed group of Mullo Abdullo (Abdullo Rahimov). Military authorities also stated that the armed group of the former opposition commander Aluvuddin Davlatov, known as Ali Bedak, had also been involved in the Sunday attack.
