The Kulob city prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal case against Vali Safarali, the husband of 28-year-old Zuhro Kurbonova, who was murdered on the night of April 1 to 2 along with her 20-year-old sister Tahmina Shohmakhmad and their 6-year-old nephew.
A source in the city prosecutor’s office informed “Asia-Plus” about the details of the murder and the progress of the investigation. According to him, 32-year-old Vali Safarali, a resident of the village of Nazarboy, in the Chagham rural community of the Shamsiddin Shohin district, worked at a flour sales point at the “Faravon” market in Dushanbe.
According to the source, the suspect regularly quarreled with his wife, Zuhro Kurbonova, and after another conflict in December of last year, his wife left with their two children to her parents’ house in Kulob. Vali Safarali “was unhappy with his wife’s behavior and plotted to take Zuhro Kurbonova’s life, planning the murder.”
The prosecutor’s office reported that the suspect arrived in Kulob on April 1, bought a knife in the city center, and appeared at his wife’s parents’ house at night.
“At 2 a.m. on April 2, he secretly entered the yard and inflicted 5 stab wounds to the chest and abdomen of his wife’s sister, Tahmina Shohmakhmad. She was pregnant and was at her parents’ house preparing to give birth. At the same time, he stabbed his wife’s 6-year-old nephew, Abubakr Kurbonov, twice in the chest, who was sleeping next to Tahmina. Then the suspect inflicted 4 stab wounds to the chest and other parts of Zuhro Kurbonova, who was sleeping in the next room with her two children and woke up from her sister’s screams,” the statement from the Kulob city prosecutor’s office said.
Vali Safarali did not harm his two children, who were sleeping in the room. The motive for the murder of Tahmina Shohmakhmad and 6-year-old Abubakr remains unclear.
According to the source, Zuhra and Tahmina died at the scene, while Abubakr died in the Kulob regional clinical hospital. Abubakr Kurbonov is the son of Fatima Kurbonova, another sister of the murdered women, who was working in labor migration in Russia at the time of the incident.
The source reported that on April 2 at 10:15, the authorities detained the suspect Vali Safarali in the Sino district of Dushanbe and brought him to the Kulob prosecutor’s office. A criminal case has been opened against the suspect on charges of murder (Article 104, Part 2, Subparagraphs “a, c, g, e, l” of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan), and the investigation is ongoing. Under this article, Safarali faces from 15 years to life imprisonment.
The opinions of the suspect and the relatives of the deceased regarding the incident are unknown.
The Kulob prosecutor’s office reported that during the investigation, a “household knife with traces resembling blood and other physical evidence, including the bloodied clothing of Vali Safarali, were found and sent for examination.” The victim Sh. Kurbonov and other witnesses of the incident have also been interrogated. The agency is conducting an investigation into the incident.
Not the first mass murder
The murder of two women and a small child was first reported by Radio Ozodi, citing its own sources. The crime has sparked widespread public reaction on social media. All three were buried on April 2.
This is not the first murder in a family in Tajikistan in recent years that has caused widespread media resonance and concern. In particular, the high-profile murder of a mother and her three minor children in the village of Daryobod in the Rudaki district, which occurred on the night of September 5 to 6 last year, caused fear and panic among the residents of that village. As a result of the murder, 44-year-old mother Shaklo Nazarova, as well as 17-year-old Habiba, 15-year-old Hamida, and 12-year-old Sharif were killed.
Additionally, in Kanibadam throughout 2024, there were serial murders, with a total of 23 members of 7 families killed. These crimes have frightened not only the residents of the city but also the entire population of Tajikistan.
The authorities have stated that the motive for all of the mentioned murders was robbery and theft of property, and that “the sole aim of the criminals was to obtain money.” All individuals involved in these crimes have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
