On the night of April 2, the sisters — 28-year-old Zuhro Kurbonova, 20-year-old Tahmina Shokhmakhmadi, and their six-year-old nephew Abubakr Kurbonov — were killed by knife blows.
A source close to the investigative authorities of the Khatlon region informed Radio Ozodi that a 32-year-old resident of the Shamsiddin Shohin district, Safarali Vali, has been detained on suspicion of involvement in the murder.
“He is the husband of Zuhro Kurbonova and worked as a loader at the flour sales point in the ‘Faravon’ market in Dushanbe,” the source said.
According to his relatives, Zuhro Kurbonova lived with Safarali Vali in Dushanbe until February of this year, but after a conflict, she moved to Kulob, to her parents’ house. Relatives claim that the man had previously threatened to kill his wife.
The position of Safarali Vali in this case is currently unknown.
According to sources from Radio Ozodi, in his initial statements, the man claimed that around two o’clock in the morning, he entered the house and mistakenly attacked his sister-in-law Tahmina Shokhmakhmadi, who was in her eighth month of pregnancy and living at her parents’ house, preparing for the birth of her child.
“Safarali Vali told the investigation that after his wife woke up and screamed, he, recognizing her, also attacked her. At the same time, he stated that he did not harm his two children, who were sleeping in the same room,” one of the sources from the law enforcement agencies of the region reported.
Radio Ozodi cannot confirm or deny the veracity of these statements.
Other details of the incident, including the motive for the attack on the six-year-old Abubakr Kurbonov, remain unknown. The boy was the son of Fotima Kurbonova — another sister of the murdered women, who was working in Russia at the time.
