Compared to 2017, crimes fell 30 percent in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), last year, Tajik chief prosecutor Yusuf Rahmon told reporters in Dushanbe today.  

According to him, more than 400 illegally possessed firearms were collected from the population during the period from late September last year to mid-January this year. 

“The interagency commission for providing the supremacy of law in the region that was set up I Khorog last autumn is continuing to work,” Tajik chief prosecutor said, noting the situation in Khorog is calm and under control of authorities.     

Recall, President Emomali Rahmon paid a working visit to the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region in mid-September last year.

On September 15, Rahmon harshly criticized the work of local law enforcement authorities and gave them one-month deadline to address the situation in the region, especially in Khorog, and implied that more robust measures could be adopted if he was dissatisfied with the results.  He said without naming them that around five or six “criminals” were at the root of the region’s ills.

A range of personnel changes were made in the region.  By president’s decree chairperson of the GBAO regional court, chief of GBAO police, chief of Khorog traffic police department as well as heads of Khorog and Shugnan and Roshtqala districts were fired.  The governor of GBAO, Shodikhon Jamshed, managed to hold onto his post until October 1, when he was replaced by Yodgor Fayzov.