DUSHANBE, July 26, 2011, Asia-Plus — Officers from the Interior Ministry and the State Committee for National Security have carried out an operation in the village of Childara, Tavildara district to recapture two high-profile prison escapees.
The Interior Ministry spokesman Mahmadullo Asadulloyev told Asia-Plus today that the operation was carried out on July 25. According to him, the escapees from last year’s high-profile jailbreak offered desperate armed resistance; one of them, Bahriddin Hasanov, 43, was killed and another one, Jonibek Ziyoyev, 32, was captured.
“An officer from the Tavildara police department was shot to death and two officers from the police directorate for the Rasht Valley were wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the criminals,” the spokesman said, noting that two assault rifles Kalashinikov and one Makarov pistols and another ammunition were found at the scene of action.
We will recall that 25 convicts serving long jail terms escaped from the SCNS’s detention facility in Dushanbe in the early hours of morning of August 23 2010, killing four prison guards. Dressing in camouflage, the escapees fled toward eastern Tajikistan. The majority of the fugitives were among 46 people convicted by the Supreme Court on August 19, 2010 of terrorism, drug trafficking, and seeking the forcible overthrow of the government. The escaped prisoners include six Russian citizens, four Afghans, and two Uzbeks. Most were accused of participating in the 2009 armed rebellion in Tavildara.
A total of 19 escapees have been detained and five killed after yesterday’s event, leaving just one man involved in the jailbreak still on the run.
On May 3 this year, the Supreme Court sentenced four of the captured escapees to life imprisonment and three others received 30-year jail terms for their part in the prison break.
