DUSHANBE, June 16, 2014, Asia-Plus – Officers from the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) have reportedly interrupted meeting of local civil society activists with Alexander Sodiqov, PhD student at Toronto University (Canada).
According to Alim Sherzamonov, the head of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) organization in GBAO, the meeting took place in Khorog on June 16.
“Alexander Sodiqov was interested in the causes of the conflict situation in Khorog and in participation of representatives of civil society in peaceful settlement of such conflicts,” said Sherzamonov. “We talked for an hour when the deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s office in GBAO and two officers SCNSN’s office in GBAO in civilian dress came and took Alexander Sodiqov with them.”
A Tajikistan native, Alexander Sodiqov is presently based in Canada doing a PhD in Comparative Politics at the University of Toronto. He received an undergraduate degree in International Relations from the Russian-Tajik Slavonic University (RTSU) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and a Master’s degree in Conflict, Development and Security from the University of Leeds, UK. Sodiqov has worked for local NGOs, the OSCE, and the UN in Tajikistan, and also taught at the RTSU.
We will recall that two suspected drug traffickers were killed and one was wounded by police officers on May 21. Besides, two persons were killed and at least seven people were wounded on the same day after police opened fire on a crowd that tried to storm a police station. The fatalities occurred during a police offensive against suspected criminals and ensuing clashes between security forces and local residents upset with the police action.
The wounded suspected drug trafficker died in the hospital Friday night (May 23), sparking the march on the building of the SCNS’s office for GBAO in Khorog. At least one person was killed and two wounded. Witnesses reported that one of the protesters threw a grenade at the building of the SCNS’s office and some protesters opened fire on the facility.
On May 24-25, several dozens of protesters in the GBAO spent two nights in tents in Khorog, demanding an investigation into deadly clashes on May 21 and the resignations of the local governor, police chiefs, and prosecutor. Protesters left the central square in Khorog after civil society activists and authorities agreed to investigate the May 21 incident.
