DUSHANBE, April 12, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajik national Homidjon Ochilboyev, a doctor at a hospital in Yemen’s Shabwa province, who was abducted by unknown persons on February 28, was released on April 12. Homidjon Ochilboyev, 60, has worked in Yemen since 2007.
Tajik Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdullo Yuldoshev told Asia-Plus by phone that Ochilboyev is currently in the house of Shabwa governor and he will be carried to the hospital soon.
As it had been reported earlier, Ochilboyev on February 28, at around 10:20 am, contacted Saidahmad Bekov, a manager with the Russian company Tekhnostroyeksport in Yemen, by phone and told him that he was taken hostage in the early hours of February 28 and he is currently being held in the mountain area. According to him, the kidnapers were not treating him badly.
We will recall that Reuters reported on March 1 that tribal sources told Reuters that armed tribesmen kidnapped the doctor, demanding the government hold accountable those responsible for an air strike on their city years ago.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on March 1 that according to Bekov, Ochilboyev said that the kidnappers told him that they have to resolve some problems with the government and needed him as a hostage.
It is to be noted that Ochilboyev was the second Tajik physician to be abducted by armed rebels in Yemen. In the first case — some three or four years ago — a doctor was transported to a remote village to treat a wounded rebel commander before being returned to his home unhurt.
