Two persons were killed and two others were seriously injured as a vehicle belonging to the Tajik Border Troops crashed in into a fixed-route tax (minivan) in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). Among those killed was a pregnant woman, therefore, one could say that the accident left three dead.
The accident reportedly took place in the area near the Khorog hydroelectric power plant (HPP) Saturday.
“The border guard lost control of his Toyota TAV-4 and it crashed into the fixed-route tax. As a result of the collision, two women, one of them was pregnant, died after falling in to the hydropower plant’s, canal. Two other persons, the diver and one of passengers, sustained serious injuries and were hospitalized,” an official source at the GBAO regional administration told Asia-Plus.
The body of one of the women was found, while searching for the body of the pregnant woman is under way, the source added.
The driver of Toyota RAV-4 – a serviceman of the Tajik Border Troops – was detained. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against him and an investigation is under way.
The news has stirred social networks. Many people have written on Facebook that the border guards (the vehicle belongs to the Border Troops of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) – number plate 009KM) were in a state of drunkenness and they fled the accident scene.
Recall, at least 100 people, mainly young people, gathered in Khorog on November 6 for protest rally demanding an investigation into an incident in which a police officer shot and wounded three local men. Protesters also demanded that the authorities remove police checkpoints that were set up in the city in September. GBAO governor Yodgor Fayzov met with the protesters and promised that a special commission would thoroughly investigate the incident.
The incident took place in Khorog’s Tirchid neighborhood late on November 4. A police officer reportedly fired a pistol at a group of young men, wounding three men.
