Monday, July 30, 2012 -
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon is ready to try only three figures over the assassination of a senior security official and will offer amnesty to all the other rebel fighters involved in last week’s clashes in eastern Tajikistan, local media outlets said Monday.
Such a deal was reportedly reached after several days of talks between Dushanbe government negotiators and the leaders of armed groups in the city of Khorog, the provincial capital of Gorno-Badakhshan where most of the recent firefights took place.
Government officials directly implicated warlord Tolib Ayombekov and the two others in the murder of regional security chief General Abdullo Nazarov. Another two people who were at the scene when Nazarov was dragged out of his car and stabbed to death will be amnestied as they were not involved, they said.
Tolib Ayombekov, chief among the three wanted men, is allegedly seriously wounded in a village nearby Khorog in the isolated mountainous area, the independent Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported Monday.
The negotiators also tentatively agreed to establish a special guard force comprising members of the armed groups to oversee security throughout the vast province located alongside conflict-torn Afghanistan.
Meantime Sunday, fighters began surrendering dozens of weapons following a renewed threat by Rahmon to end the ceasefire called Tuesday and resume fighting.
"Those laying down their weapons are immediately amnestied," Tajikistan’s interior ministry said in a statement reported by the Reuters news agency.
Nearly 50 people died in the heavy clashes between the rebels and thousands of government soldiers backed by helicopter gunships, and armored vehicles. The dead include 17 government troops, 30 rebels, and one civilian.
In other news, the country’s legally registered Islamic Revival Party (IRP) claims that its chief in Khorog has been executed by law enforcement authorities, Asia-Plus reported.
Sabzali Mamadrizoyev was arrested, beaten, then shot by Tajik police on Wednesday for a public speech he gave two days earlier criticizing the authorities for their inaction in the face of what he described as bad social and economic conditions, the opposition party said in a statement.