DUSHANBE, August 24, 2012, Asia-Plus — Withdrawal of additional government forces from Khorog and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) will be conducted under the schedule worked out by the country’s power-wielding structures, GBAO governor Qodir Qosim told Asia-Plus in an interview Friday afternoon.
He noted the first stage of withdrawal of additional government forces from Khorog began on Friday.
“The current situation in Khorog is calm and all government bodies, shops and medical facilities are functioning,” GBAO governor noted.
He, however, refrained from speculating exact date of full withdrawal of extra government forces from Khorog, saying that “everything depends on further situation.”
Meanwhile, the state-run news agency, Khovar, cited Lieutenant-Colonel Mizrob Dorobov, a spokesman for the GBAO police directorate, as saying that some 250 government troops left Khorog Thursday evening.
We will recall that additional government troops are leaving Gorno Badakhshan under the terms of an agreement signed between the authorities and local civil society activists.
The agreement was signed on the evening of August 23, following two days of protests by thousands of residents in the city of Khorog.
The protests followed the murder of an informal leader of Khorog Imomnazar Imomnazarov, who was killed early on August 22 in an attack on his home in Khorog. Government officials have denied any involvement in the killing.
Imomnazarov had been wanted by the authorities in connection with the death of the GBAO regional security chief Abdullo Nazarov, who was killed in Khorog on July 21.
The government sent extra forces to Khorog and clashes between the government troops and militants reportedly left some 70 people dead.
