DUSHANBE, April 9, 2013, Asia-Plus — The Tajik ministry of defense says that trucks with military personnel on board heading for Khorog — all this is just preparation for annual military exercises in Gorno Badakhshan.
“The Ministry of Defense is not going to carry out any military operation in Khorog and military convoys heading for Gorno Badakhshan are connected with the ongoing spring conscription campaign and the planned military exercises that will be conducted in Gorno Badakhshan in late May – early June,” said Faridoun Mahmadaliyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD). “Similar military exercises for servicemen of the power-wielding and law enforcement structures were finished in Khatlon province on March 29 and now such exercises will be conducted in Gorno Badakhshan and Sughd province.”
According to him, the GBAO population’s apprehensions regarding military convoys heading for Khorog are absolutely unfounded.
We will recall that government forces launched a military operation in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) on July 24, 2012 against what the authorities called “militants” following the murder of the regional security chief. The GBAO regional security chief Abdullo Nazarov was stabbed to death on July 21, 2012. The operation lasted for several weeks.
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 used 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.
