Six years ago, on September 19, 2010, at 12:30 pm, a military convoy was ambushed in the Kamarob Gorge in Rasht district, some 250 kilometers of Dushanbe. According to official data, twenty-five soldiers were killed and several others were wounded.
The Tajik authorities noted that the attack had been committed by the armed group of Mullo Abdullo (Abdullo Rahimov). Military authorities also stated that the armed group of the former opposition commander Alovuddin Davlatov, known as Ali Bedaki, had also been involved in the Kamarob attack.
The Defense Ministry said the gunmen were believed to have included militants from Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as fighters from Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya.
On September 20, 2010, Husniddin Davlatov, the brother of Alovuddin Davlatov, stated on the Tajik national television that Alovuddin Davlatov himself and a number of his supporters had participated in the attack.
“In all, Alovuddin has more than 100 people under his authority, including foreign mercenaries,” said Husniddin Davlatov, “He organized a terrorist training camp in the mountains of Rasht, where he has instructed young people and teenagers in methods of subversive activities.”
Husniddin said he has received orders from his brother for acquisition of uniforms and substances necessary for making explosives several times.
On September 22, 2010, Tajik government troops launched a large scale operation to hunt the attackers. On the same day, five militants were killed in Rasht district.
On October 6, 2010, 28 people were killed in a helicopter crash in Rasht, including four crew members, three technical personnel and 21 servicemen of the special operations unit of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Alpha.
The Russian-built MI-8 belonged to the National Guard and according to the National Guard press service, the crash was caused by technical reasons.
A truck that had servicemen of the National Guard onboard was blown up by a landmine in Rasht district on the same day. At least six servicemen were reported killed.
On November 9, 2010, the head of the State Committee for National Security, Saymumin Yatimov, said that the operation in Rasht was almost over. He recalled that some 20 gunmen had been killed and some 30 others either surrendered or sided with government forces in pursuit of the militants.
Alovuddin Davlatov, known as Ali Bedaki, who was blamed for a September 19 ambush in Kamarob Gorge, and seven his confederates were killed in a special operation in Rasht district on January 4, 2011.
The militant leader Mullo Abdullo was killed on April 15, 2011 along with 14 of his confederates in Rasht district, some 50 kilometers west of Gharm, the administrative center of Rasht district.
Mullo Abdullo was one of UTO field commanders during the country’s 1992-1997 civil war. He never accepted the peace treaty and reportedly fled to Afghanistan. In 2009, a few reports surfaced that he had returned to Tajikistan and was hiding in the mountains around the Rasht district.
