DUSHANBE, April 13, 2011, Asia-Plus — Former United Tajik Opposition (UTO) filed commander Shoh Iskandarov has been appointed deputy chief of the Interior Ministry’s regional office for the Rasht Valley, Minister of Interiors Abdurahim Qahhorov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, Shoh Iskandarov who has military rank of colonel was appointed to this senior police post in early April already.
According to some sources, it was Shoh Iskandarov who led former UTO militants in negotiations with a delegation of power ministries last autumn, after which the former UTO militants agreed to lay down their weapons and join forces with government troops to hunt down illegal armed formations in Rasht.
Shoh Iskandarov was a prominent member of the UTO during the country’ war in the mid-1990s but was later appointed to command the troops deployed on the border with Kyrgyzstan in Jirgatol district as part of a broader attempt at reintegrating former rebel leaders. He was removed from his position on the Kyrgyz border in the early-2000s.
