The State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) claims that five law enforcement officers were injured in clashes that took place near the GBAO regional administration building on November 25.
The SCNS statement broadcast by the Regional TV Station “Badakhshon”, in particular, says that “a group of young men, instigated by interested parties, broke public order for the purpose of seizing the GBAO regional administration building.”
They allegedly disobeyed the order of law enforcement officers and attacked officers of the SCNS, police department and prosecutor’s office using firearms, stones and sharp objects.
As a result of clashes, five law enforcement officers sustained injuries of varying severity.
The authorities urged residents of the GBAO and Khorog not to believe unfounded rumors and not to break public order.
At the same time, the statement does not indicate the reasons for the incident and does not mention the fact of death of Gulbiddin Ziyobekovб because of which residents of Khorog went to the rally.
Recall, the incident took place on the morning of November 25. The GBAO prosecutor’s office confirmed that in the village of Tavdem in GBAO’s Roshtqala district, an operation was carried out by law enforcement agencies to capture Gulbiddin Ziyobekov, who was wanted on charges of taking hostages and inciting ethnic hatred. “During the operation, he put up armed resistance and began firing from a Makarov pistol, which he possessed illegally. The offender was wounded by return fire,” the message says.
Some eyewitnesses of the events claim that Gulbiddin Ziyobekov was shot in the head and died on the way from Roshtqala to Khorog.
A local official, on condition of anonymity, said that Ziyobekov should have been detained in connection with the beating of an employee of the prosecutor’s office in 2020. The prosecutor’s office claims that “Ziyobekov and several other young people took hostage the assistant prosecutor of the Roshtqala region A. Abirzoda on February 1, 2020, and tortured and beat him for eight hours.” Ziyobekov, according to local authorities, did not come to testify in this case.
According to one of the residents of the Roshtqala district Ziyobekov and other young guys beat the prosecutor’s office officer Abirzoda for offering an intimate relationship to a local young woman.
