DUSHANBE, August 4, 2009, Asia-Plus — The 37-year-old Rahmiddin Azizov and the 32-year-old Zaydullo Azizov, the brothers of the killed militant leader Nemat Azizov, were detained in the Tavildara district, some 220 kilometers east of Dushanbe on July 28, according to the Ministry of Interior (MoI).
The source at a MoI said that in the course of investigation, the detainees had revealed the armed group’s three arms caches in the areas of Gul and Girdob in Tavildara. “One grenade launcher, machine-gun Kalashnikov, assault rifle Kalashnikov, more than 2,800 bullets of different caliber and other ammunition have been extracted from the hides,” the source said.
According to him, the Azizov brothers face charges of banditry, setting up illegal armed group and illegal possession of weapons.
We will recall that Nemat Azizov, the leader of the illegal armed group that was active in Tavildara in recent months, was reportedly killed in a clash with government forces in the Tavildara district on the night of July 28-29. Nemat Azizov and some of his followers were tracked down in the village of Miyonadu. According to Tajik law enforcement authorities, Nemat Azizov refused to surrender and was killed in the shoot-out.
Nemat Azizov, also known as Sheikh Nemat, 41, resident of the village of Pastirogh Sheikh in the Saghirdasht jamoat of GBAO’s Darvoz district, was a field commander of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) during the civil war in the country in the 1990s and alter signing of the General Peace Agreement in 2007, his group was integrated in the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He had served as commander of one two battalions of the Committee for Emergency Situations deployed in Tavildara. He was wanted by Tajik law enforcement authorities in recent months for alleged manslaughter and drug-related crimes.
