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Tajikistan’s president heads for area of anti-terror mission

Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon went to the town of Vakhdat, which is close to the area of the anti-terror mission against a rebel general

Emomali Rakhmon Mikhail Klimentyev/press-service of the Russian president/TASS

Emomali Rakhmon

© Mikhail Klimentyev/press-service of the Russian president/TASS

DUSHANBE, September 6. /TASS/. Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon went to the town of Vakhdat (20 kilometres from the capital city), which is close to the area of the anti-terror mission against a rebel general, the president’s press service said on Sunday.

The president will study the social, political and economic situation in the town and will participate in putting operational several important facilities.

The press service does not provide details, but TASS sources say the president may have meetings with commanders of the special mission and with law enforcers in the area of the anti-terror operation.

On Saturday, the criminal group of Tajikistan’s former Deputy Defence Minister Abdulkhalim Nazarzoda has dropped most arms and dispersed in the mountains some 50 kilometres from the country’s capital city Dushanbe. Law enforcers’ helicopters monitored the region to follow the bandits.

Tajikistan’s law enforcers mission

Tajikistan’s law enforcers continue a mission to find and detain rebel General Abdulkhalim Nazarzoda and his supporters, who shelter in the Ramit mountain gorge, the republic’s interior ministry told TASS on Sunday.

The situation in the country’s capital city Dushanbe and in the town of Vakhdat, close to the Ramit gorge, "is controlled fully by the republic’s law enforcers," the ministry’s press centre said. "The anti-governmental group will be detained very soon."

Unofficial sources say about talks with the rebels to avoid possible bloodshed. The talks may feature former participants in the united Tajik opposition.

On Saturday, the criminal group of Tajikistan’s former Deputy Defence Minister Abdulkhalim Nazarzoda has dropped most arms and dispersed in the mountains some 50 kilometres from the country’s capital city Dushanbe. Law enforcers’ helicopters monitored the region to follow the bandits.

Over the years of the civil war in Tajikistan in 1992-1995, Nazarzoda, dubbed Khalim, was a field commander of the Tajik armed opposition. After a peace deal was signed in June 1997, Nazarzoda was commissioned to the Tajik army under the programme of reintegration of former opposition gunmen. In 2014, he was promoted to the rank of Major General and appointed deputy defence minister.

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