DUSHABE, September 16, 2015, Asia-Plus – Commander of Alpha Group (an elite subunit of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Colonel Rustam Amakiyev, was killed yesterday in a clash between the government forces and the group of a fugitive former deputy defense minister in the Romit Gorge east of Dushanbe, an official source in Tajik law enforcement authorities told Asia-Plus today morning.
According to him, two officers of OMON (special police unit) were badly wounded in yesterday’s clash in Romit.
“There are casualties among supporters of Abduhalim Nazarzoda as well,” the source said.
We will recall that former deputy defense minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda and a group of gunmen under his control launched a predawn attack on the main police station in the Vahdat Township east of the Tajik capital on September 4, and clashed later that day with security forces at a Defense Ministry building not far from the Dushanbe International Airport. Nine police officers were killed and six others were wounded in those attacks.
Authorities say Nazarzoda, his alleged associate Colonel Juhaidulloh Umarov, and several other gunmen then fled to the Romit Gorge, adjacent to Vahdat, where security forces are targeting them in a large-scale manhunt.
Hours after the September 4 attacks, President Emomali Rahmon dismissed Nazarzoda as deputy defense minister “for committing a crime.”
The Prosecutor-General”s Office said on September 8 that Abduhalim Nazarzoda has been officially charged with high treason, terrorism, sabotage, and creating an extremist group.
Tajik officials said on September 14 that 22 members of the group have been killed and 117 others arrested during the operation and that weapons and vehicles have been seized from the group.
Abduhalim Nazarzoda, 51, had served as deputy defense minister since January 2014. He joined the security forces in June 1997 when the government and the opposition signed a peace accord to end the five-year civil war.
