In Tajikistan’s Khorog, security forces used weapons against protesters. The prosecutor’s office talks about “warning shots”

In the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan, law enforcement officials used weapons to suppress protests in the city of Khorog. The unrest began after one of the local residents was killed during the detention, transfers Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

The authorities admitted the shooting, but maintain that it was warning. “Law enforcement officers were forced to fire warning shots into the air to stop the protesters,” regional prosecutor Parviz Orifzod said on TV.

Sources in Badakhshan told Radio Ozodi that at least four people were injured as a result of shooting in the central square of Khorog on November 27. The shots were fired after the head of the region, Alisher Mirzonabotov, went to the protesters and urged them to leave the square. He promised to investigate the murder of Gulbiddin Ziyobekov by the security forces, which the audience insisted on. But people did not disperse and demanded the resignation of the mayor of Khorog.

Stones were thrown at Mirzonabotov. There was a scuffle, and then shooting began.

According to the prosecutor Parviz Orifzoda, the protesters “attacked” the regional chairman and those accompanying him, as a result of which the deputy of parliament Aziz Giyozoda was inflicted “grievous bodily harm”.

According to the prosecutor, a criminal case has been initiated into the events in Khorog under several articles of the Criminal Code: resistance to a representative of the authorities, insult to a representative of the authorities, hooliganism, and deliberate infliction of grievous bodily harm.

Protests in Khorog erupted on November 25 after the death of 29-year-old Gulbiddin Ziyobekov. As explained in the prosecutor’s office, the security forces carried out a special operation that day in the village of Shokhdara. Suspect Ziyobekov opened fire on them with a Makarov pistol. In the shootout, he was allegedly wounded.

Those close to Ziyobekov reject the official version that he resisted. According to one of the eyewitnesses, the suspect was shot in the head after his arrest, on the way from Shokhdar to Khorog.

On the morning of November 26, Gulnazar Murodbekov died, who also received a gunshot wound during the operation to detain Ziyobekov. A local resident Tutisho Amirshoev was fatally injured during the protests and clashes with the security forces.

A case was initiated against Ziyobekov under Art. 181 (hostage-taking by an organized group) and Art. 189 (incitement to ethnic, racial or religious hatred) of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Ziyobekov, together with accomplices from an organized criminal group, took the assistant prosecutor of the Roshtkala region hostage on February 1, 2020. The official was beaten and tortured for eight hours.

According to local residents, the reason for the kidnapping of the assistant prosecutor was that he offered a local woman to have sexual relations with him.

Protesters in Khorog say they fear violence from security forces and a repeat of the 2012 events. Then, during the special operation, according to official data, 23 servicemen and 21 civilians were killed.