DUSHANBE, July 25, 2012, Asia-Plus – Tajik officials say 12 government troops and 30 militants were killed on Tuesday in clashes in Khorog, the administrative center of Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (Gorno Badakhshan or GBAO).
Nozirjon Bouriyev, a spokesman for the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), says that some 40 militants, including eight Afghan nationals, were arrested during the military operation in Khorog.
Bouriyev rejected earlier reports about civilian casualties. “Unfortunately, 12 law enforcement officers were killed and 23 were wounded during the operation,” he said. “There were no civilian casualties.”
According to him, more than 100 firearms and a large amount of ammunition were seized during the operation. “An active phase of the operation has been completed and security forces are currently mopping up the remnants of criminals.”
Meanwhile, wounded soldiers and officers are being taken to hospitals in Dushanbe. To-date, 13 wounded participants of the military operation in Khorog have been taken to the republican hospital in Dushanbe; one of them died. Many people have gathered near the military hospital in Dushanbe.
The operation was targeting Tolib Ayombekov, a former opposition commander and current commander of the border unit in the Ishkashim district, and his confederates.
The armed, illegal group led by Ayombekov has reportedly been involved in drug trafficking and also tobacco smuggling and the trafficking of precious stones over the years. This group is also suspected of involvement in the killing of the chief of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office in Gorno Badakhshan.
Abdullo Nazarov, 56, was reportedly stabbed to death on July 21. It was described as the first attack on a high-ranking security officer in Tajikistan in the past few years. Investigators have linked the killing to illegal tobacco-related businesses.
Officials said on July 23 that two suspects allegedly involved in Nazarov”s murder had been arrested.
On July 24, Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry and State Committee for National Security issued a joint statement saying that special units of the presidential guard, the Interior Ministry, the State Committee for National Security were taking part in the operation.
Tuesday”s operation in Khorog appeared to be the largest of its kind since late 2010, when troops hit Islamist militants in a retaliatory attack in the nearby Rasht valley region.
