DUSHANBE, December 26, Asia-Plus – Tajiks living near the border with Afghanistan are falling prey to drug dealers who are taking desperate measure to recover debts. Afghan drug dealers are kidnapping residents of border villages, holding them hostage until their relatives pay ransom money to clear debts. The most vulnerable part of the Tajik border is the Shuroobod area.
Two residents of the Shuroobod district that had been in such captivity for two years were released on December 22, according to the center for public relations of the State Committee for National Security.
A source at the committee said that the Afghan drug dealer Ashurbek valadi Sultonmamad took the men to Afghanistan in 2004 and set ransom money for their return. They were released through negotiations conducted by officers from the Khatlon security department, according to the source.
“The released men provided us with quite detailed information disclosing a mechanism of criminal activity of Afghan drug traffickers and their accomplices from among residents of Shuroobod,” the source said, adding that the information received will be used for settling tasks on strengthening the border protection.
The Asia-Plus interlocutor pointed out that the committee had intensified work on strengthening the border protection and revealing criminal groups, as well as releasing Tajiks being held hostage in Afghanistan.
We will recall that Colonel-General Saidamir Zuhurov, former head of Tajik border service, told journalists in Dushanbe in October that practically all our fellow-countrymen that had been taken by Afghan drug dealers to Afghanistan were released, “except one young woman who married Afghan and is not going to return home.”
