DUSHANBE, June 11, 2014, Asia-Plus – Some Tajik experts consider that attack on the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) leader Muhiddin Kabiri in Kulob and rally in front of the British Embassy in Dushanbe have one promoter.
We will recall that IRP leader Muhiddin Kabiri was pelted with tomatoes and eggs on a visit to the city of Kulob on June 10. Some 15 men and women pelted Muhiddin Kabiri tomatoes and eggs, accusing the party members of wakening the civil war in the 1900s and seeking to destabilize the country today.
On the same day, police detained about a dozen protesters who rallied in front of the British Embassy in Dushanbe. The protesters, mainly women, threw stones at the embassy building. According to some witnesses, the protesters also smashed the embassy”s security cameras and scuffled with security personnel. The gathering was not sanctioned by city authorities.
The deputy head of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP), Shokirjon Hakimov, says both incidents – the attack on Kabiri in Kulob and the rally in front of the British Embassy in Dushanbe – are interrelated and have one promoter.
“In both cases, the law enforcement authorities have not shown activity in detecting instigators of those incidents, and therefore, one may suppose that both incidents are handiwork of one promoter – a group, which is close to the government,” Hakimov said.
He links attacks on representatives of the opposition Islamic Revival Party to parliamentary elections that will be held in the country next February.
Meanwhile, Tajik journalist Rajab Mirzo considers that all sorts of incidents that have become frequent in the country in recent year and a half are open provocations and they have been initiated by those who are interested in destabilizing the situation in the country.
“Such groups may be inside the country and outside it, but their sole aim is to sow fear in society and destabilize the situation,” Rajab Mirzo said.
He further noted that it could not be ruled out that there were persons among officers of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), “who are acting on two fronts.”
Radio Liberty reports that renting groups of women — to stage or disrupt gatherings and even physically attack or publicly humiliate government opponents — is a well-known practice in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. But it”s been unknown so far in Tajikistan.
We will recall that some two dozen female protesters noisily disrupted a press conference of the Social-Democratic Party last December to criticize its leader and heap praise on President Emomali Rahmon. Journalists that time recognized at least two of the women as participants in a protest that took place outside the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe on April 5, 2013.
