DUSHANBE, Ocotber 1, 2012, Asia-Plus:

September 1                 - President Emomali Rahmon inaugurated a new international school in Dushanbe.  Based in Dushanbe’s Kalinin neighborhood, the school is designed to accommodate 600 students from the first to eleventh grades.

September 1-4              - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon was on a state visit to India.  He met with a number of high-ranking Indian state officials to discuss cooperation issues.  Six cooperation documents were singed during Rahmon’s visit to India.     

September 2                 - A court in the Qumsangir district, Khatlon province sentenced two members of the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) -- Alisher Davlatov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov -- to 15 and nine years in prison respectively.  Besides, the court imposed fines on Nouriddin Iskhanov and Shuhrat Karimov for not reporting a crime.  The amount of fine is equal to 700 accounting indices.

September 5                 - Deputies of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament unanimously supported the candidacy of Dilmurod Davlatov, formerly director of the Agency for Public Procurements, for chairperson of the Chamber of Accounts.  The Majlisi Namoyandagon endorsed the bill requiring establishment of the Chamber of Accounts on June 1, 2011.  The new government institution will control revenue and expenditure parts of the national budget, off-budget funds and investments coming in the country’s economy from abroad;

- The Majlisi Namoyandagon endorsed the new edition of the country’s tax code;

- A deadly fire broke out at fire at a marketplace, Korvon, on the Dushanbe outskirts.  The blaze destroyed one of the market''s major buildings and numerous trade stands where goods were stored.  Officials said one person was killed in the fire and two were hospitalized with burns.

September 6                 - Hundreds of vendors who lost their goods in a deadly fire at the Korvon marketplace held a march in the Tajik capital to demand that authorities compensate them for their losses.  Dushanbe Mayor Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev met with the vendors 6 and promised to arrange compensation and deals with local banks to delay credit payments due by the vendors;

- A court in the Yovon district, Khalton province found the district police officer Mashraf Aliyev guilty of torture (under Article 143.1 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code) and sentenced him to seven years in prison.  This is the first time an official has been charged with the crime of torture since the Article on Torture in line with international legal standards was introduced into the Penal Code of Tajikistan in March of this year.  The police inspector was convicted for torturing and ill-treating a 17 year old boy on April 27, 2012.

September 7                 - Participants at the 923rd session of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) passed a statement, in which they expressed concern about the situation in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) and demanded that Tajik authorities allow international organizations and diplomatic missions to have access to the region.

September 8                 - Supreme Court has sentenced 15 alleged members of a banned Islamist group, Jamaat Ansarullah. In the closed trial hearing, 12 of the defendants were sentenced to prison terms between five and 24 years.  One defendant received a two-year suspended sentence while two were fined undisclosed amounts.  The trial began on August 30 and is the first against alleged group members since it was banned in May.  Most of the defendants were arrested during counterterrorist operations in Tajikistan''s eastern Rasht area in 2011.  Some were detained in Pakistan;
- An operation carried out by police officers in Dushanbe led to the arrest of a 30-year-old citizen Afghanistan, Khalid waladi Gul Murad.  70 kilograms of hashish were reportedly confiscated from him. 

September 9                 - Tajikistan marked Independence Day.

September 11               - Visiting delegation of the National Defence College (NDC) of India, led by Rear Admiral Ravindra Gaikwad, held talks in Dushanbe with Lieutenant-General Ramil Nadyrov, First Deputy Minister of Defense also Chief of the General Staff of Tajikistan’s Armed Forces.  Issues related to training of personnel for Tajik armed forces at Indian military colleges and participation of India in modernization of the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan were a major topic of the meeting.  On the same day, the NDC delegation met with Nizomiddin Zohidov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Tajikistan.  In the course of the talks, the sides reportedly exchanged views on further expansion of many-sided cooperation between the two friendly countries;

- A court in the Qubodiyon district sentenced alleged member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) Asliddin Navrouzov from the village o Qizil Nishon to eight years in prison on September 11.  The sentence followed his conviction on charges of organizing a criminal group;

- A shooting incident took place on the Tajik-Uzbek border in the northern Sughd province. Tajik officials say the Uzbek border guard entered Tajik territory on horseback and started filming the Tajik side of the border.  After he ignored a command to leave, the Tajik side opened fire.  Uzbek border guards reportedly opened fire at Tajik border guards from the contiguous territory.  Tajik border guards replied to their fire; the trespasser, however, managed to return to the Uzbek territory.

September 11-12           - Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov was in Dushanbe for talks with Tajik officials on the future of Russia''s military base in Tajikistan.

September 11-14           - Hussein Anvari, Head of the Imam Khomeini’s Relief Committee (IKRC), was in Tajikistan on a working visit.  During his stay in Tajikistan, Anvari held talks with relevant Tajik state officials to discuss cooperation between this Iranian relief foundation and Tajikistan and visited the northern Sughd province.  

September 13               - About 50 residents Kyrgyzstan''s southern region of Osh blocked a highway connecting their region with Tajikistan, in a protest over exports of gasoline the protesters say is needed in Kyrgyzstan, Radio Liberty reported.  Fifteen trucks destined for Tajikistan, each carrying 40 tons of gasoline, were stuck on the highway near the village of Kara-Myk as a result of the protests.

September 14               - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met here with Mr. Kazuyuki Hamada, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan.  The sides discussed issues related to state and prospects of bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation between Tajikistan and Japan. 

September 17               Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Mr. Martin Marmy, Secretary General of the International Road and Transport Union (IRU) and Mr. Edouard Biryukov, Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat of the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA).  The sides reportedly considered issues related to expansion of cooperation of Tajikistan with the mentioned international organizations on creation of the transport corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia.

September 18-19           - President Emomali Rahmon paid visit to the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).  Rahmon’s visit to Gorno Badakhshan took place weeks after a special operation there by security forces left some 70 people dead.

September 18-21           - An exhibition of export goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) took place at the Kokhi Borbad State Complex in Dushanbe.

September 19-22           - Tactical military exercises for subunits of Russia’s military base in Tajikistan took place at the Lohur military test field near Dushanbe.  Some 800 mountain infantry troops were reportedly involved in the maneuvers.  

September 20               - 27-year-old inmate Hamza Ikromzoda died in a penal colony.  His relatives say he as tortured.  According to them, Hamza’s body carries traces of torture, including burns caused by a heated iron;

- The 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of having been involved in drug pushing died when he jumped out of a six-story window of the building of the Drug Control Agency (DCA) in Dushanbe.  The prosecutor’s office in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district has launched an investigation into the incident.  The source refrained from giving further details;

- The new Central Command (CENTCOM) Director of Plans, Policy, Strategy, and Outreach, Major General Beydler was in Dushanbe as part of his familiarization tour of Central Asia.  In Dushanbe, Major-General Beydler met with officials of the Tajik government and the U.S. Embassy to discuss security issues of mutual concern;

- The military court of the Khatlon garrison sentenced three officers from the frontier post “Kokul” deployed in Khatlon province to long jail terms. The commander of the frontier post “Kokul” Senior Lieutenant Jovidon Abdulloyev, Lieutenant Ghayrat Sharipov, and Warrant Officer Saidmurod Taghoymurod were sentenced to 18, 14, and 13½ years respectively.  The sentence followed their conviction on the charges of drug trafficking and smuggling.  Senior Lieutenant Jovidon Abdulloyev was also charged with sodomy and misuse of office.  Security officers reportedly found a drug cache organized by Abdulloyev, Sharipov and Taghoymurod; 47 kilograms of raw opium and some 10 kilograms of hashish had been extracted from the hide.”         

September 21               - Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was in Dushanbe to discuss issues with Tajik officials including a possible extension of a troop deployment in Tajikistan beyond 2014.  Shuvalov said the two countries will sign an agreement extending Russia''s military presence in Tajikistan “very soon.”  He noted that the final decision will be taken by the two presidents.  Under the current 10-year lease signed in 2004, Russia gets exclusive use of three military bases and joint use of an air base free of charge.

September 25-26           - President Emomali Rahmon was on a working visit to his home district, Danghara.  On September 25, he inaugurated two new educational facilities.  On September 26, Rahmon urged his countrymen to store two years’ worth of food reserves in order to prepare for the upcoming harsh winter.

September 28               - Drug control chiefs from Tajikistan (Rustam Nazarov), Afghanistan (Zarar Ahmad Moqbel), Pakistan (Javed Iqbal) and Russia (Viktor Ivanov) gathered in Dushanbe to discuss the progress of implementation of anti-drug agreements that had been reached before, implementation of the so-called roadmap for countering spread of Afghan opiates.

September 29               -The first group of Tajik pilgrims, numbering more than 200 people, left for Saudi Arabia.