DUSHANBE, November 3, 2012, Asia-Plus – Four informal leaders of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) have been included in Interpol’s database on wanted persons.
Interpol reports that Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov, Tolib Ayombekov, Yodgorsho Mamadaslamov and Imomnazar Imomnazarov are wanted by the Tajik authorities for various crimes.
According to Interpol’s website, Imomnazar Imomnazarov and Yodgorsho Mamadaslamov are wanted by the Tajik authorities for drug-related crimes. Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov is reportedly wanted by the Tajik authorities for offences against life and health, sex crimes, and drug-related crimes. Tolib Ayombekov is wanted for life and health, drug-related crimes, and thefts, according to Interpol’s website.
Interpol’s website does not specify since what time these persons have been wanted by the Tajik authorities.
Meanwhile, according to official data Tajik law enforcement authorities, Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov, Tolib Ayombekov and Yodgorsho Mamadaslamov are currently in Gorno Badakhshan under a written undertaking not to leave Tajikistan, while Imomnazar Imomnazarov was murdered by unknown assailants in his home in Khorog, the capital of Gorno Badakhshan last August.
Therefore, several questions arise: If these persons did not leave the country and all this time they have been on its territory, why were they declared internationally wanted? If they were declared internationally wanted last year, why is Tolib Ayombekov, who had been deputy commander of one of border units until last July, is among them? Besides, it is puzzling why is late Imomnazar Imomnazarov is still on the list of wanted persons?
Asia-Plus has still failed to receive replies to these questions from the Ministry of Interior (MoI)
We will recall that the Prosecutor-General’s declared these four persons wanted following a bloody military operation that was conducted in Khorog last July.
The clashes began in Khorog on July 24 when government forces launched a military operation against what it called “militants” following the murder of the regional security chief Abdullo Nazarov on July 21.
The authorities have blamed Tolib Ayombekov, a former warlord from the civil war who had been deputy chief of border unit in the Ishkashim district until recently, for the murder of the regional security chief Abdullo Nazarov. Hundreds of troops have reportedly poured into Khorog to hunt down Ayombekov.
Authorities also accused Ayombekov of drug-trading and smuggling tobacco and precious stones.
Tolib Ayombekov has denied the accusations and said the government is using Nazarov”s death as a pretext for cementing its grip over Gorno Badakhshan. Tolib Ayombekov surrendered to the authorities on August 12.
Another former filed commander of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) in Gorno Badakhshan, Imomnazar Imomnazarov, was murdered by unknown assailants in his home in Khorog on August 22.
