The Interior ministry says four members of the armed group of former deputy defense minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda, also known as Hoji Halim, have been detained in Dushanbe recently.
The Interior Ministry press center Hoji Halim reported on May 30 that ex-member of the banned Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) Hussein Javov, 31, and Nazriddin Noibov, 36, from Khatlon’s Jomi district as well as two residents of Dushanbe Sadonsho Nazarov, 39, and Alisher Hasanbekov, 40, have been detained in Dushanbe recently on suspicion of participation in the 2015 mutiny led by former deputy defense minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda. All of them are natives of Yazgulem jamoat in Vanj district of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region.
In 2014-2015, they reportedly joined the illegal armed group of the 45-year-old Akbarsho Nusratshoyev, who was subordinate to Abduhalim Nazarzoda.
According the Interior Ministry press center, they were receiving from 400 somoni to 100 U.S. dollars per month from the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan and they had to be always at the ready.
Abduhalim Nazarzoda, who was promoted to deputy defense minister in 2014, was accused in 2015 of leading what the government calls a "terrorist" attack — a spate of violence that left at least nine police and 17 militants dead on September 4, 2015.
Nazarzoda, his alleged associate Colonel Juhaidulloh Umarov, and several other gunmen then fled to the Romit Gorge, adjacent to Vahdat, where security forces targeted them in a large-scale manhunt that ended September 16 with Dushanbe's announcement of their deaths.
Shortly after the attacks, Nazarzoda was sacked for "committing a crime" and was later charged with treason, terrorism, sabotage, and creating an extremist group.
In May 2016, Nazazoda’s son, Bahtiyor Nazarov, was found guilty of public calls for mass disorder in attempting to change the country's constitutional order and for intentionally failing to report a crime. A Dushanbe court sentenced him to 22 years in jail.
