At least 50 inmates were reportedly killed, along with two guards, and numerous others wounded in the riot that broke out at a high-security penal colony 3/3 in the northern city of Khujand late on November 7.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service yesterday cited officials in a state entry as saying that at least 50 inmates were killed in the Khujand prison riot.
The sources showed RFE/RL a list of at least 50 inmates they said were killed in the Khujand prison riot.
Recall, a reliable source at the Sughd law enforcement authorities told Asia-Plus on November 12 that twenty-two prisoners and two guards – a 42-year-old Major Mirsaid Qodirov and a 27-year-old guard Ehson Yoqubov — were killed when the riot broke out in the Khujand-based high-security penal colony. Besides, six other law enforcement officers with various wounds were hospitalized.
It is not clear what sparked the riot that was suppressed by riot police sent to the prison.
Meanwhile, Amaq news agency, which is linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group, reported on November 8 that one of IS fighters “is responsible for the attack in Tajikistan that sparked a prison riot.”
Some media outlets have dwelled on the fact that the Khujand high-security penal colony has been used to hold people convicted on charges of belonging to radical religious organizations.
It is to be noted that a serious riot took place in Khujand-based men’s penal colony 3/19 on April 14, 1997. Prisoners reportedly protested living conditions and perceived injustice in the prison system. Security forces put down the protest on April 17 in what Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called a “massacre.” The Tajik government says 24 prisoners were killed and 35 were wounded, but human rights organizations have estimated as many as 150 people were killed.
