DUSHANBE, July 16, 2009, Asia-Plus — The current situation in the Tavildara district is relatively stable and there is no fighting in the district now, an official with the Ministry of Interior (MoI) told Asia-Plus Wednesday afternoon.
“Police officers are currently meeting with local, giving an enlightening talk on the necessity of voluntary handover of weapons,” said the source. “Those who hand over the weapons will be not taken to the justice organs.”
According to Himmatsho Ghairatov, the chairman of the Tavildara district, the situation in the district has come to normal. “People are engaged in their everyday care and nothing threatens their security,” Ghairatov said.
In the meantime, according to Tajik law enforcement authorities, several members of the armed group that clashed with the government forces in Tavildara have been transported by helicopter to Dushanbe. Among them is Hikmatullo Azizov, former head of the Tavildara emergency management agency. “They are held in pretrial detention facility of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) and criminal proceedings have been instituted against them,” the source said.
As it had been reported earlier, a group of gunmen attacked a police post “Safedkhok” in the Tavildara district, some 220 kilometers east of Dushanbe on July 8. A group of unidentified men tried to push through the check point towards the district center but were pushed back by the police. Several attackers were injured but managed to escape.
The First Deputy Minister of Interiors, Ramazon Rahimov, told a press conference in Dushanbe on July 12 that Mirzo Ziyoev was killed on July 11 while trying to reveal the armed group’s hidden weapons and negotiating surrender of the armed group led by Nemat Azizov.
Rahimov alleged that Ziyoev joined the armed group involved in a July 8 armed attack on a police checkpoint. According to him, Ziyoev and several other members of the gang were arrested after the July 8 skirmish. Mirzo Ziyoev was killed as he tried to assist government forces in disarming the remaining gang members, the deputy minister said. Rahimov said Mirzo Ziyoev agreed to show the places where weapons were stored, and to conduct negations with the rest of the armed. “However, on the way, members of the Nemat Azizov group attacked the government forces. Ziyoev was killed and several police and security officers were wounded,” the deputy minister said.
Official report by the MoI suggested that the armed group was trying to take control of the Tavildara district center.
According to the law enforcement authorities, no wounded was reported among civilian population during the skirmishes.
Mirzo Ziyoev was one of top field commanders of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO). He was appointed the minister of emergencies in 1999 as part of a power-sharing agreement signed in 1997. The ministry was disbanded in 2006 and he was dismissed.
