A blast that occurred near the Khatlon military prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Qurghon Teppa has left one person dead.
On March 12 at about 21:30 pm, a 67-year-old man, who worked as a guard at the technological lyceum next to the building of the Khatlon military prosecutor’s office, was killed as an explosive device detonated in his hands, according to the Interior Ministry’s website.
It was unclear if the man — identified as Hasanboi Rahmonov, an ethnic Uzbek — had detonated the explosives himself.
Police cordoned off the site and said they were investigating the incident.
The Khatlon prosecutor’s office has instituted criminal proceedings and an investigation is under way. Authorities did not provide further details.
Meanwhile, it has been already the second blast in Qurghon Teppa, the capital of Khatlon province, since the beginning of this year. A blast occurred in the Lomonosov settlement adjoining Qurghon Teppa in the morning of January 30. Hyundai belonging to an employee of the Beeline mobile operator was blown up by an explosive. The car’s owner survived the explosion. The law enforcement authorities have refrained to comment on that incident.
Recall, the report by The Hague-based International Center for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) — War by Suicide: A Statistical Analysis of the Islamic State's Martyrdom Industry — says that 27 Tajiks had carried out suicide operations in Iraq and Syria from December 2015 to November 2016, the highest among all foreign individuals whose country of origin had been identified.
The report says 186 foreigners died as suicide operatives in the year in question and most came from Tajikistan, followed by Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, and Russia. Tajikistan’s presence at the top of this list is curious. Over the twelve months in question, significantly more Tajiks died in VBIED (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices) and inghimas operations in Syria and Iraq than any other foreign national, the report said, noting that the figure is even more striking when considered on a per capita basis, and suggests that Tajiks were being singled out for use in suicide attacks at least in part because of their nationality. While a similar phenomenon appears to be the case with the other top-scoring states, the disproportionality of Tajikistan is strange indeed. It is beyond the scope of this paper to determine why this might be, but it is worth noting that the man currently rumored to be IS’s highest military authority – Gulmurod Halimov – is a Tajik national, the report added.
