DUSHANBE, February 2, 2015, Asia-Plus:

 

January 1         - Drug control officers in cooperation with border guards seized 12 kilograms of raw opium in Khatlon’s Hamadoni district.  One of drug traffickers was wounded in an exchange of fire, the source at the counternarcotics agency said.  

 

January 5         - Drug control officers seized 9.176 kilograms of hashish in Sughd’s Mastchoh district. 

 

January 6         - Eleven people were killed as a minivan turned over in the Kuhistoni Mastchoh district, Sughd province;

                                   - Tajik Ambassador to Qatar Ardasher Qodiri met with the Yemeni authorities to discuss  issues related to securing the release of Tajik nurse Gulrukhsor Rofiyeva, who was kidnapped in Yemen’s Marib province on October 29, 2014. 

 

January 7         - The Tajik Interior Ministry said in a televised statement that Ikrom Halilov, a former imam of a mosque in the Shahrinav district also the suspected leader of a cell of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and 10 alleged subordinates were detained in Tajikistan.  According to the ministry, the group is suspected of planning to attack a police station in order to seize guns.

 

January 9         - Rustam Nazarzoda, the director of the Drug Control Agency under the President of Tajikistan (DCA), met here with a delegation of Pakistan’s Armed Forces led by rear Admiral Farrukh Ahmed.  Tajik drug control chief briefed the guests on the current drug situation in the Central Asian region. He reportedly also asked to help with organizing English language courses for young officers of the DCA.  For his part, Rear Admiral Farrukh Ahmed expressed gratitude to the DCA director for regional approach to the drug trafficking problem and expressed hope for further expansion of cooperation, the source said.

 

January 12        - Three residents of Khatlon province were detained with 27.10 kilograms of hashish in Dushanbe.

 

January 13        - The Dushanbe city court convicted lawyer Shuhrat Qudratov of taking a bribe and sentenced him to nine years in prison.  Qudratov is the deputy head of opposition Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan, which included his name on its list of candidates for March 1 parliamentary election despite his being held in pretrial detention.  He was detained in July.  Qudratov was a lawyer for the jailed Tajik tycoon Zayd Saidov; 

- Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov met here with the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan, Ambassador Hidajet Biscevic.  The two discussed a broad range of issues related to cooperation between the Tajikistan and the European Union.  They, in particular, discussed regional security, the current economic situation in the country, water-and-energy problems as well as some international and regional issues being of mutual interest;    

- An operation carried out by officers from the Interior Ministry’s office for the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) in Khorog’s Niwodak area led to the arrest of the 43-year-old Afghan national Qurbonbek waladi Mamadafzal.  45.8 kilograms of raw opium and 4.2 kilograms of hashish were confiscated from him.

 

January 14        Human Rights Watch said the case against Tajik lawyer Shuhrat Qudratov struck a blow to freedom of expression and the independence of the legal profession in Tajikistan.  Qudratov should be released, and authorities should ensure the independence of Tajikistan’s legal profession, a statement released by Human Rights Watch said;

                        - Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament (Majlisi Oli) ratified an agreement between Tajikistan and the Export-Import bank of China (China Exim Bank) on concessional loans for construction of the Vahdat-Yovon section of the rail link connecting Dushanbe and Qurghon Teppa, the capital of Khatlon province.

 

January 15        - Director of bazaar in the Bobojonghafourov district and the bazaar guards beat an orphaned boy to death for theft of foods and 380 somoni.  According to the Interior Ministry’s office for Sughd, the Nazari Nek bazaar director Rustam Jourayev and the bazaar guard chief Ahliddin Fayziyev detained two inmates of the Chkalovsk boarding school on the bazaar’s territory.  The teenagers reportedly stole food products and 380 somoni.  The men severely beat the teenagers and one of them, who had neither father nor mother, died later in hospital.  Criminal proceedings were instituted against the bazaar director, the bazaar guard chief and one of the bazaar guards under the provisions of Article 110 (3) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code -- intentional infliction of serious bodily injury; an investigation is under way.  

 

January 16        - Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimov told journalists in Dushanbe that Tajikistan had formally asked Turkey to extradite fugitive opposition politician and businessman Umarali Quvvatov.  Quvvatov is wanted by Dushanbe on fraud charges that he says are politically motivated.  His Group 24 political organization was banned in October, when the government labeled it as an extremist group.  Quvvatov and three associates were detained in Turkey in December for violating visa regulations.

 

January 18        - The Tajik border guard, 22-year-old Faridoun Olimov, was wounded in an exchange of fire with an armed group trying to cross from Afghanistan.  He was taken to the hospital in Kulob, where doctors operated on him.  Olimov was shot in the stomach, but the operation was successful and the border guard recovered.  A second border guard was also lightly wounded and was being treated at a local medical facility.

 

January 19        - Tajik Deputy Foreign Minister, Nizomiddin Zohidi, met with the U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Susan M. Elliott.  The two reportedly discussed issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the United States and expressed satisfaction with the process of expansion of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.  They also discussed a number of other issues being of mutual interest.  

 

January 20        - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) formally opened an election observation mission (EOM) for the March 1 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan.  According to the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, the mission is led by Miklos Haraszti and consists of a core team of 14 experts based in Dushanbe;  

                                   - Tajik anticorruption agency said a new criminal case against the jailed Tajik businessman has moved to a court in Dushanbe.  The new case against Zayd Saidov includes forgery, abuse of office, embezzlement and tax evasion.  Saidov, 55, was sentenced to 26 years in jail in December 2013, after he was found guilty of financial fraud, polygamy, and sexual relations with a minor.  Saidov is the leader of the unregistered New Tajikistan opposition party. He has denied all charges, saying they are politically motivated.

 

January 21        - Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament (Majlisi Oli) ratified an agreement between the governments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member nations on the facilitation of international road transport among the SCO member states.  The agreement aims to bolster regional road transport development, increase potential capabilities of cross-border transport among SCO member countries, and promote trade and investment within the region;

                                   - Afghan News Agency Khaama Press (KP) cited Afghan law enforcement authorities as saying that Tajik national, who was identified as Sheroz Umarov, was detained in Afghanistan on suspicion of terrorism.  The man reportedly arrived in Afghanistan from Pakistan.  According to the Afghan Interior Minister, Umarov received four-month training in Waziristan and he was sent to Afghanistan to commit terrorist acts in the Kunduz province.

 

January 21-22   - A delegation of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament led by the Majlisi Namoyandagon deputy speaker Mirgand Shabozov participated in the 10th session of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Member States that took place in Istanbul, Turkey.

 

January 22        - A 43-year-old Afghan national was arrested in the city of Kulob on suspicion of drug trafficking.  A package of narcotic drug that tested positive to hashish weighing nearly 10 kilograms was confiscated from him.

 

January 23        - Tajik President Emomali Rahmon addressed a joint meeting of both chambers of the parliament.  Usually, in an address to the parliament, the president discusses the country’s priorities in domestic politics and foreign policy as well as the main economic challenges;

                                   - The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), expressed concern about the sentencing of Tajik lawyer Shuhrat Qudratov and the state of civil and political liberties in the country.  She also noted the new charges brought against Zayd Saidov, the leader of an unregistered political party.  “On the eve of parliamentary elections, at a time when Tajikistan should be engaged in an open debate on what’s best for the country, these legal measures cast doubt on political freedom, judicial independence and rule of law,” Santos said.

 

January 24        - President EmomaIi Rahmon issued a decree on relieving Sherkhon Salimzoda of his post of the Prosecutor-General of the Republic of Tajikistan.  On the same day, President Rahmon issued a decree on appointing Yusuf Rahmonov the Prosecutor-General of the Republic of Tajikistan;      

- An extraordinary session of Tajikistan’s upper house (Majlisi Milli) of parliament took place in Dushanbe.  The session gave consent to the appointment of Yusuf Rahmonov, who had previously served as First Deputy Head of President’s Executive Office, as Prosecutor-General of Tajikistan. 

 

January 25        - Two drug traffickers were killed in a skirmish on the Tajik-Afghan border in Khatlon province.  Tajik border guards on a routine patrol reportedly spotted a group of armed people, who were illegally crossing the border river in the Farkhor district.  When the border guards tried to detain the trespassers, the latter opened fire at them.  As a result of the skirmish, two trespassers were killed while the remaining trespassers returned to the Afghan territory.  The killed trespassers were identified as residents of the Farkhor district Mahmadsharif Zubaydulloyev, 22, and Khurshed Amirov, 25;

                                   - Three Afghan nationals were detained while illegally crossing the border river in the Panj district.  Two of them are Afghan police officers and the third one is a cadet of the Afghan border guard training academy.      

 

January 27        - Tajik Ambassador to Iran Nematullo Emomzoda met with Iran''s Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister also Iranian Railways CEO Mohsen Pour Seyed Aghayee in Tehran.  The two discussed issues related to participation of Tajikistan and Iran in implementation of large regional transportation development projects.  A special attention was reportedly given to the implementation of the Iran-Afghanistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-China (IATKC) railway project.  Emomzoda and Aghayee noted that implementation of that project would improve commerce and trade in the region.  They sides reached an agreement to set up a working group for the IATKC railway project, the source said. 

 

January 27-28   - Russian Deputy Defense Minister visited Tajikistan. During the visit, he held talks with his Tajik counterpart Sherali Mirzo and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon .  During the talks, he, in particular, noted that Moscow wants to strengthen the Tajik army as “an outpost of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Central Asia.”  Talking to journalists after meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on January 28, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said the withdrawal of most Western combat troops from neighboring Afghanistan last year makes it particularly important to bolster Tajikistan''s military.  He did not give details.

 

January 28        - U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Susan M. Elliott and representatives of USAID, along with Governor of Khatlon Province Davlatsho Gulmahmadzoda, participated in ceremonies to hand over irrigation machinery to communities in Khatlon Province.  The Jilikul Federation of Water Users Association received an excavator valued at $112,000 and Nahri Qumsangir Federation of Water Users Association received a tractor/backhoe valued at $44,900.  USAID reportedly donated the machinery to support implementation of irrigation water sector reform in Tajikistan.  Ambassador Elliott also presided over the inauguration of the Obrason-K Water Users Association’s new office building.

 

January 29        - Minister of Transport Khairullo Asozoda heading a Tajik government delegation participated in the 11th annual meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) TRACECA that took place in Istanbul, Turkey.