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More food aid to be sent to Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan provincе

The local tobacco mafia is believed to be behind the general’s death

DUSHANBE, July 31 (Itar-Tass) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has given instructions to republican officials to increase food aid to the Gorno-Badakhshan province which suffers food shortage in connection with the latest events in the region.

The instruction was given at a government session on Tuesday, sources from the presidential administration told Tass. Besides, the president has announced the government’s decision to allocate over 110 hectares of homestead land to some districts of the province.

The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province is the poorest region, and receives 75 percent of subsidies from the republican state budget. It has the highest unemployment level and the biggest number of people with higher education.

The United Nations has expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in the province in connection with the confrontation of government forces and illegal armed groups starting from July 23. The United Nations asks the Tajik authorities to allow its representatives in the region to assess the situation.

The political council of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, the second biggest and influential after the ruling People’s Democratic Party has made an appeal to raise humanitarian aid for the Gorno-Badakhshan province.

According to law enforcement agencies, a seasefire is still in place in the region after a large-scale operation of government forces pulled into the region after the murder of Abdullo Nazarov, 56-year-old general of the Tajik Security Services.

In the course of negotiations, militant leaders agreed to voluntarily surrender arms. In the past two days over 200 pieces of automatic weapons, including high-caliber, have been surrendered to law enforcement agencies of the region.

Abdullo Nazarov was killed in a Khorog suburb on July 21 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 at him 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.

The local tobacco mafia is believed to be behind the general’s death.