DUSHANBE, April 7, 2015, Asia-Plus – Residents of the village of Yakabed are continuing search for bodies of their fellow villagers buried by a landslide on their own.
One of residents of the Yakabed village participating in the search works says they recovered one more body today morning and the body was identified as Maqsoud Tolibov, 19.
Meanwhile Orif Nozimov, a spokesman for the Committee on Emergency Situations and Civil Defense under the Government of Tajikistan (CES), says rescue and search works, led by the CES deputy head, Major-General Rustam Shoyev, have been stopped.
According to him, 100 local residents and 99 employees of the CES have been involved in the search operation.
“A joint commission has come to a conclusion that our primary task is to lay a water supply pipe to the village, and therefore, all CES employees, who participated in the search operation, have been involved in laying the water supply pipe to Yakabed,” Nozimov said.
We will recall that recent torrential rains set off a mudslide down the hill in the Fayzobod district, killing at least ten people.
The tragedy took place in the Sholipoya area, not far from the village of Yakabed in the Fayzobod district, some 50 kilometers to the east of Dushanbe.
The landslide occurred Friday (April 3) afternoon, at around 1:10 pm, when residents of the Yakabed village were cleaning an irrigation canal.
At least ten men aged 17 to 52 were buried by the landslide: Shodmon Alimardonov; Mahmad Umarov; Khudoiberdi Odinayev; Islomiddin Abdulloyev; Said Jalilov; Daler Kabirov; Fakhriddin Nourov; Maqsoud Tolibov; Naim Qurbonov: and Maqsad Shodiyev.
Two bodies were recovered on the same day, April 3. They were identified as Shodmon Alimardonov, 25, and Mahmad Umarov, 28.
Earlier in February, avalanches caused by abrupt warming and heavy snowfall killed five people in the northern province of Sughd.
Mountains cover around 93 percent of Tajikistan, the country with a population of 8 million.
