DUSHANBE, June 2, 2015, Asia-Plus – Colonel Khurshed Izatullo Muhammadzoda (Khurshed Mahmadshoyev) has been appointed new commander of Tajik OMON (special police unit), an official source at the Tajik law enforcement authorities told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“Before this appointment, Colonel Muhammadzoda had served as Commander of the Interior Ministry Internal Troops Directorate,” the source noted.
It is to be noted that Colonel Muhammadzoda had been in command of Tajik special unit in the early 2000s.
Colonel Khurshed Izatullo Muhammadzoda, 43, has higher military and legal education. He has served in organs of internal affairs since May 13, 1990.
We will recall that former special police unit commander Gulmurod Halimov who has been missing since late April reappeared on the Internet, claiming that he has joined Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in protest at official restrictions on religious observance back home.
In a video posted on YouTube on May 27, Colonel Gulmurod Halimov says that Tajik labor migrants “must stop serving infidels” in Russia and join ISIL in Syria and Iraq in order to establish Shari”a law in other countries, including Tajikistan.
The Prosecutor-General’s Office has reportedly launched an investigation into former OMON commander.
Russia’s news agency
TASS
reports that Tajik competent bodies have exact information that former OMON commander has joined ISIL militants in Syria.
TASS
quoted an official source at the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan (SCNS) as saying that the charge of mercenary activities has been officially brought against Gulmurod Halimov.
