DUSHANBE, July 12, 2011, Asia-Plus — An investigation into last year’s attack on a military convoy in Kamarob Gorge of Rasht district has been completed and persons under investigation are currently familiarizing themselves with the case materials, Tajik Prosecutor-General Sherkhon Salimzoda told reporters on July 12.
Asked about the fate of soldier Emomnazar Muqimov, who was captured by militants in Rasht district last September, Salimzoda said that he was currently continuing military service in one of military units of the Ministry of Defense.
“According to the preliminary investigation, Muqimov was captured by militants during the attack on the military convoy in the Kamarob Gorge on September 19, 2010 and during long time, he was attending upon them. We are continuing to find out the details of the matter,” noted Salimzoda, “Meanwhile, an officer of the Ministry of Defense was also captured during the September 19 ambush and he died in captivity.”
In the meantime, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on June 20 that a jailbreak escapee, Furqat Kholmetov, and suspected militant Emomnazar Muqimov were detained during a government operation in Rasht district on June 20. Muqimov was a Tajik soldier who went missing in September last year during antiterrorist operations in Rasht. The Interior Ministry spokesman Asadulloyev told RFE/RL that investigation was launched to find out if Muqimov deserted the army and joined the militants on his own or was forced to do so after being captured by extremists.
We will recall that an ambush killed at least 28 government troops in Rasht Valley on September 19, 2010. Tajik authorities said the Defense Ministry”s convoy had come under grenade attack in Kamarob Gorge in Rasht Valley, a one-time stronghold of the Islamic opposition that had fought the government in a civil war in the 1990s.
The authorities blamed former opposition commanders Alovuddin Davlatov (known as Ali Bedaki) and Abdullo Rahimov (known as Mullo Abdullo) for the ambush and additional government forces were sent to the area to hunt down the attackers.
On January 4, 2011, the Interior Ministry forces raided a building in Rasht district, where a group of militants were sheltering. The Interior Ministry official Tohir Normatov said Alovuddin Davlatov was among eight people killed in the operation.
The country’s most wanted man, militant leader Abdullo Rahimov, has been killed in Nourobod district. Rahimov, widely known as Mullo Abdullo, was reportedly killed on April 14, 2011 along with 15 of his followers in a special operation by government forces in the village of Samsoliq, about 135 kilometers east of Dushanbe.
