At least nine Tajik security officers were killed and another 25 others injured on Tuesday during a special operation in eastern Tajikistan against a mafia-style group believed to be behind the murder of a top Tajik security general, a security source said.
“We have nine people killed and 25 injured, but we are sure that there are many more losses on their [the mafia] side,” the source said.
The operation began in the early hours of Tuesday near the city of Khorog, the administrative center of Tajikistan’s southern Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, and is still underway, he said.
Maj. Gen. Abdullo Nazarov, chief of the Tajikistan National Security Committee regional office, was killed on Saturday. His car was stopped by a group of unidentified persons several kilometers from Khorog, he was pulled out of the car and stabbed several times. The general died on the way to hospital.
Tajik authorities said an organized crime group involved in tobacco smuggling, drug trafficking, and other crimes, was behind Nazarov’s murder. The group blamed for the murder is led by Tolib Aiyembekov, a former border guard unit commander and warlord.
Several criminal group members were killed and detained during the raid, according to a report by the Central Asian News Service, which said citizens of Afghanistan were among those detained. The information has not been officially confirmed.
Special forces from the Presidential Guard, the National Security Committee, and the Interior Ministry have been involved in the operation, which involved an unspecified number of helicopter gunships, the report said.
State and government employees in Khorog stayed away from work during the operation, the news service added.
