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Two detained in Khorog on suspicion of general’s murder

The general was attacked by at least 20 people

DUSHANBE, July 23 (Itar-Tass) — Two people suspected of complicity to the murder of state security General Abdullo Nazarov have been detained in Khorog, a regional interior department told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“Both men are assumed to be members of a group that attacked the high-ranking Tajik security officer on Saturday evening,” the source went on to say. He added that a search operation was under way in Khorog and its outskirts.

“The general was attacked by at least 20 people,” the interior department employee stressed.

In the meantime, from 60 to 100 thousand peope have gathered for a rally outside the local administration building in Khorog. Its organizers are believed to be former Tajik opposition commanders. One of them, Tolibek Ayembekov, the head of the Ishkashim border garrison on the Pamir section of the Tajik-Afghan border said he had got nothing to do with the rallies.

“The people have gathered spontaneously. They want justice. They are against bringing troops into the Pamir and the use of force against the former commanders disguised as a special operation to catch people guilty of the death of General Nazarov,” he added.

Earlier, Marufdzhon Umarov, the deputy head of the Tajik security service, said that the situation was under control. The Tajik interior and defense ministers, the leadership of the State National Security Committee and the heads of other related agencies held a meeting in Khorog on Monday.

General Abdullo Nazarov was killed in a Khorog suburb last Saturday when he was returning from the Ishkhashim administrative center in his official car. A group of people blocked his way. They pulled the general out of the car, delivered several blows that were incompatible with life and escaped.

General Abdullo Nazarov was the chief of Tajik State National Security Committee department for the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province.

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