DUSHANBE, September 1, 2014, Asia-Plus:

 

August 1                      - Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov met here with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.  According to the Tajik MFA information department, the two discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and China as well as a number of regional and international issues being of mutual interest.  Aslov and Wang also discussed preparations for Chinese president’s state visit to Tajikistan scheduled for September this year and exchanged views on draft cooperation documents that are expected to be signed during the upcoming visit;

- A three-day visit of Japan’s parliamentary delegation to Tajikistan concluded.  According to the Tajik MFA information department, the delegation members included representatives of Japan’s upper house (House of Councilors) of parliament and it was led by Mr. Masahisa Sato, a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).  During the visit, they met with a number of high-ranking Tajik state officials to discuss cooperation issues.  Japanese MPs reportedly held talks with Mr. Davlatali Said, First Deputy Prime Minister of Tajikistan Mr. Khairullo Asozoda, Minister of Transport of Tajikistan Ms. Lola Bobohojiyeva, Deputy Minister of Health and Social Protection of Tajikistan and Mr. Davlatsho Gulmahmadov, Governor of Khatlon Province.  Issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Japan as well as projects of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) in Tajikistan were among major topics of the talks. 

 

August 2                      - One person was killed and one another was injured in a stabbing attack in the city of Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).  According to the Interior Ministry’s website, the 24-year-old resident of Khorog, Rahul Rustambekov, attacked two residents of Khorog – Firdavs Amirshoyev, 19, and Gulasar Azimshoyev, 19.   Rustambekov reportedly stabbed Firdavs Amirshoyev once in the neck and stabbed Gulasar Azimshoyev once in the ribs.  Amirshoyev died on the way to hospital.  Rustambekov was detained by law enforcement officers on the same day on suspicion of deliberately inflicting serious injury to health.

 

August 5                      - According to Radio Liberty, security officials in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Badakhshan said they detained citizens of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan -- together with two Afghan police officers -- on suspicion of being involved in terrorist activities.  The detained Tajik citizen was identified as Aliqul, son of Ahmadqul, from Tajikistan''s southern city of Kulob.  Afghan authorities say he confessed to being a member of the Jamaat Ansarullah group, which is considered by many countries to be a terrorist organization.  The Kyrgyz man was named as “Abdullah, son of Farmon.”  He reportedly confessed that he is a member of a little-known group called Sipohi Kyrgyzstan – “The Guard of Kyrgyzstan.”  The detained suspects also reportedly confessed that they were planning terrorist attacks in northern Afghanistan;

                                    - The bodies of two residents of Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), with bullet wounds were found in Khorog’s Newodak area; 

                                    - The law on Islamic banking in Tajikistan came into force.  The law came into force after it was published in the official government newspaper.

 

August 6                      - Tajik Deputy Foreign Minister, Nizomiddin Zohidi, met here with visiting Iranian Deputy Minister of Energy for International Affairs, Esmail Mahsouli.  According to the Tajik MFA information department, the two exchanged views on state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Iran.  Zohidi and Mahsouli also discussed issues related to preparations for an official visit of Iranian President Dr. Hassan Rouhani to Tajikistan.

 

August 7                      - Several Internet service providers (ISPs) unblocked the popular video-sharing website YouTube.  We will recall that ISPs Saturn Online, Babilon T, Megafon Tajikistan, Telecom Technology, Tcell and some others blocked access to YouTube on July 9. 

 

August 8                      - According to information posted on Facebook, a five-year-old girl was reported missing in Dushanbe.  The five-year-old Osiya reportedly disappeared after she went outside to play Friday afternoon.  It is to be noted that Osiya’s family lives in the same building as families of cousins Sabina and Malika Aralova live.  Sabina and Malika, age 4 and 6, disappeared under the same circumstances.  The girls also disappeared after they went out to play in Dushanbe’s Ayni Street on March 25, 2013.  Investigation into the disappearance of Sabina and Malika is going on.  

 

August 9                      - Tajik border guards on a routine patrol reportedly spotted three armed horsemen who were illegally crossing the border.  Tajik officials say Tajik border guards demanded that the men surrender their weapons but that they “started shooting at the guards, and one of the men was killed in the incident.”  Two other trespassers were detained.  The trespassers proved to be nationals of Kyrgyzstan from the Chon-Alay district in the Osh oblast.  The body of the killed trespasser was handed over to Kyrgyz border guards.  The incident took place near the Tajik border village of Tupakul (the Laysou glacier area) in the Jirgatol district, eastern Tajikistan.  The Kyrgyz trespassers were reportedly engaged in illegal hunting in Tajik territory.

 

August 11                     - Tajik and Kyrgyz officials met over the killing of a Kyrgyz citizen in Tajikistan’s Jirgatol district near the border between the two countries.  The meeting reportedly took place in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh.

 

 

August 11-12                - The boards of the interior ministries of Tajikistan and Russia held a joint meeting in Khujand, the capital of the Tajik northern province of Sughd.  Co-chaired by Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Kolokoltsev, the meeting reportedly discussed issues related to cooperation between the interior ministries of the two countries in combating international terrorism and extremism, transnational crime and drug trafficking.

 

August 12                     - The Supreme Court of Tajikistan handed down lengthy prison sentences for seven men found guilty of plotting a terrorist act on the Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO), the largest aluminum smelter in Central Asia.  The court sentenced the men to from 18 to 22 years in prison.  A court statement said they were "found guilty of banditry, seeking to overthrow the government, organizing an extremist group, terrorism, illegal weapons possession, and other charges."  The men deny the charges as baseless.  All defendants are ethnic Uzbeks, residents of western Tursunzoda district, where the plant is located.  At least one of them was a TALCO employee.  Police announced the arrests of the men in April. 

 

August 15-16                - An international investment forum, Pamir Invest 2014 , took place in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).  Organized by the Association of Entrepreneurs and Mountain Farmers “Milal Inter” and the Public Foundation to Promote Cross-border Trade Cooperation in GBAO jointly with the GBAO regional administration, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI)’s office in GBAO, and the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management under financial support of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, VSO Tajikistan and GIZ Tajikistan and with support from Aga Khan Foundation (AKF),  the forum brought together local and foreign investors, entrepreneurs and representatives of international organizations active in Tajikistan to discuss development of production enterprises in the region on the basis of use of domestic raw materials and attraction of local and foreign investments.

 

August 24-29                - A large-scale military exercise of the armed force of member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), dubbed Peace Mission 2014 , took place in China.  Around 7,000 servicemen from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan reportedly participated in the six-day exercises.  Tajikistan was represented by more than 200 servicemen of the Ministry of Defense (MoD).  Uzbekistan did not take part in the exercises.  On August 28, the chiefs of general staffs of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan met in Beijing.  They agreed reportedly to improve joint antiterrorism operations.  On August 29, they monitored the final stage of the exercises, which simulated a military response to an outbreak of inter-ethnic tensions in any of the countries.  The six-day Peace Mission 2014 live-firing drill in China also rehearsed joint antiterrorism operations.

 

August 25                     - Kyrgyz border guards reportedly fired at a group of Tajik villagers protesting Kyrgyz plans to build a highway and a bridge in a disputed area.  The incident reportedly took place in the Tajik northern Bobojonghafourov district.  The shooting reportedly left two Tajiks dead and five injured.  Meanwhile, Russian news agency Interfax quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards exchanged fire in the neighboring Kyrgyz district of Leilek in Batken region.  Kyrgyzstan''s border service said the shooting erupted after Tajik border guards attempted to set up a border post in unmarked territory located at the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.  There were no casualties reported in this incident.

 

August 26                     - Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan reportedly held talks on border issues in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.  The talks reportedly focused on the 46 percent of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border that needs to be demarcated;

                                    - Tajik police detained two servicemen from Russia''s military base in Tajikistan on suspicion of killing a taxi driver in Dushanbe.  They are suspected of killing taxi driver Rahimjon Teshaboyev, 36, whose body was found near Dushanbe last week.  He had reportedly been beaten and his throat slashed.  Tajik law authorities said a preliminary investigation indicated an argument over money might have prompted the killing.  Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry identified the two suspects as deputy platoon commander Fyodor Basimov and former military unit commander Ildar Sakhapov.

 

August 27                     - A jailed hairdresser from Kulob was reportedly sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a warden to death with scissors.  Umed Teshayev''s defense lawyer told RFE/RL''s Tajik Service that the court had extended his sentence to life in prison following a request from relatives of the victim.  We will recall that the jailed hairdresser Umed Teshayev had his sentence extended to a 30-year prison term for stabbing the prison warden Umar Qayumov to death.  Teshayev was found guilty of murder and sentenced on April 8, 2014.  The 30-year-old prisoner had worked as a hairdresser before being sentenced last year to 17 ½ years in jail for stabbing the 50-year-old Abdurasoul Aliyev to death with straight razor in his hairdressing salon on August 31, 2013.

 

August 29                    - The United States imposed sanctions against Tajikistan-based Iranian-owned bank, Kafolatbank.  Kafolatbank is owned by the Iranian financial institution, Sarmayeh Bank, which was reportedly placed under sanctions in July 2012.