In Dushanbe, unidentified men in civilian clothes attacked journalists of the TV channel Present Time and the Tajik service of Radio Liberty (Radio Ozodi).
According to Anushervon Aripov, the TV crew of Present Time was returning from an interview with Ulfathonim Mamadshoeva, a civil activist and journalist who, the authorities believe, was one of the organizers of the ‘illegal rally’ in Khorog.
“There were three of us – the operator, our driver and me. We got into the car and were about to go to the office, when suddenly a tinted white foreign car without numbers blocked our way. Three unidentified people in civilian clothes jumped out of there, took our phones, dragged us outside, forced us to open the trunk, took away all the equipment. They ignored our requests to introduce themselves. We said that we were journalists, and they replied, “We know well who you are,” and left,” says Aripov.
A similar incident occurred with Radio Ozodi’s journalists Mulloradjab Yusufi and Barot Yusufi in the same location – near the house of activist Ulfathonim Mamadshoeva.
“We recorded an interview with her in the yard and were returning to the car. Suddenly, two strangers approached us, forcibly took our mobile phones from us and inflicted several blows on our face and body. One of them called me by my name and threatened to shoot me,” Mulloradjab Yusufi said.
Journalists from Present Time and Radio Ozodi covered the events in Khorog. Local media are prohibited from doing so under threat of closure. On the morning of May 17, the independent news agency “Asia Plus” reported that it would refrain from covering the events in GBAO due to pressure from the authorities.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan made the following persons responsible for organizing an illegal rally in Khorog: one of the informal leaders of the region Mamadbokir Mamadbokirov (in the report, he is called ‘the leader of the criminal group of Khorog’), civil activist and journalist Ulfathonim Mamadshoeva and ‘a person who is wanted’ – Alim Sherzamonov, the deputy head of the banned in the country National Alliance of Tajikistan, which unites opposition groups abroad.
The report notes that the illegal rally was organized ‘with the aim of violating public security, intimidating the population and influencing public authorities to make decisions in the interests of persons engaged in illegal criminal activities’.
“At 20:40 on May 16, a group of young people, on the orders of Mamadbokir Mamadbokirov and under the leadership of 29-year-old resident of Khorog Zamir Nazrishoev, committed an armed attack on employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for GBAO, who were performing their official duties in the building of the Regional Court, and detonated a hand grenade,” reports MIA. As a result of the incident, the report says, the first deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for GBAO, Police Colonel Gairatsho Muborakshozoda, an employee of the Operational Department of the Internal Troops Directorate under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Captain Shukhrat Kamishev, and the Commander of a special forces platoon of the military unit 3503 of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Senior Lieutenant Abubakr Faizullozoda, were injured. According to the authorities, during the repulse of an armed attack, Z. Nazrishoev was injured and died in the hospital.
Law enforcement authorities confirm that special means were used during the operation to disperse the demonstration. “Investigative measures are ongoing to identify other members of the organized criminal group who took part in the armed attack. The Prosecutor’s Office of GBAO initiated a criminal case against the organizers of the incident,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.
The report doesn’t say a word about the civilians wounded during the dispersal of the rally, the number of which, according to various estimates, ranges from 6 to 10 people.
