DUSHANBE, January 8, 2015, Asia-Plus – Tajik Ambassador to Qatar Ardasher Qodiri on January 6 visited Yemen to discuss with the authorities of this country issues related to securing the release of the abducted Tajik nurse Gulrukhsor Rofiyeva.
The Tajik MFA information department says that during a meeting with the Yemeni Foreign Minister Jamal Abdullah Al-Sallal, Qodiri conveyed Tajik foreign minister’s request to secure the release of Gulrukhsor Rofiyeva.
During a meeting with the Yemeni Interior Minister Abdo Hussein Eltareb, Tajik diplomat reportedly asked to intensify work on releasing the Tajik national.
The Yemeni authorities assured that the safety of the Tajik female nurse is on top of their priorities and security services in Marib are doing all they can to free the Tajik national, the source said.
We will recall that Gulrukhsor Rofiyeva, 36, who was working as a nurse in Yemen’s Marib province, was kidnapped on October 29. Gulrukhsor Rofiyeva’s relatives say she was supposed to return to Tajikistan on November 13.
Tribal sources reportedly said the kidnappers are pressing the authorities to release fellow tribesmen held on criminal charges.
In a release issued on November 14, the Yemeni Interior Ministry revealed the names of the kidnappers, who are Mohammad Huraiqedan, Ali Huraiqedan and Nasser Huraiqedan; all from Al Meza’of Abida Tribe.
They are ex-convicts accused of committing crimes ranging from highway robbery, blocking roads to kidnapping foreigners, a statement by the Yemeni Ministry of Interior said.
It is to be noted that hundreds of foreigners have been abducted in Yemen over the past two decades by tribesmen who use them as bargaining means in disputes with the government.
There are other dozens of Tajik doctors still working in Yemen.
