There are suppositions that a lyceum guard could be a casual victim of Sunday’s blast near the military prosecutor’s office in Qurghon Teppa, the capital of Khatlon province.

There are speculations that the lyceum guard found a suspect package and was going to bring it to the prosecutor’s office when it blew up in his hands.  The Interior Ministry has not yet commented on these speculations.  

Recall, the blast that occurred near the Khatlon military prosecutor’s office in Qurghon Teppa on March 12 at about 21:30 pm left one person dead.

According to the Interior Ministry’s website, a 67-year-old man, who worked as a guard at the technological lyceum next to the building of the Khatlon military prosecutor’s office, was killed as an explosive device detonated in his hands.

It was unclear if the man -- identified as Hasanboi Rahmonov, an ethnic Uzbek -- had detonated the explosives himself.

The Khatlon prosecutor’s office has instituted criminal proceedings and an investigation is under way.  Authorities did not provide further details.

Meanwhile, the report by The Hague-based International Center for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) -- War by Suicide: A Statistical Analysis of the Islamic State's Martyrdom Industry -- says that 27 Tajiks had carried out suicide operations in Iraq and Syria from December 2015 to November 2016, the highest among all foreign individuals whose country of origin had been identified.  

The report says 186 foreigners died as suicide operatives in the year in question and most came from Tajikistan, followed by Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, and Russia.  Tajikistan’s presence at the top of this list is curious.  Over the twelve months in question, significantly more Tajiks died in VBIED (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices) and inghimas operations in Syria and Iraq than any other foreign national, the report said, noting that the figure is even more striking when considered on a per capita basis, and suggests that Tajiks were being singled out for use in suicide attacks at least in part because of their nationality.  While a similar phenomenon appears to be the case with the other top-scoring states, the disproportionality of Tajikistan is strange indeed.  It is beyond the scope of this paper to determine why this might be, but it is worth noting that the man currently rumored to be IS’s highest military authority – Gulmurod Halimov – is a Tajik national, the report added.