DUSHANBE, July 29, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Speaking to reporters in Dushanbe, Minister of Interiors Mahmadnazar Solehov said on July 29 that Yevgeny Sergeyev had been appointed to head special police unit, OMON.   

According to him, Sergeyev had previously been deputy commander of the special police unit.  

The previous commander of the special police unit, Colonel Oleg Zakharchenko,  was killed in the Rasht district on February 2 this year.  The minister noted that investigation into the Rasht incident is under way.  

We will recall that the special police unit was attacked on February 2 this year after it was dispatched to the Rasht district headquarters of the regional directorate for combating organized crime.  

It is to be noted that circumstances of this incident still remain unclear.  According to one version, the police unit was going to arrange a meeting of the local police directorate, while according to other version, they were seeking to arrest the head of the regional directorate for combating organized crime, Mirzokhouja Ahmadov, but were fired upon by gunmen loyal to Ahmadov.

The 40-year old commander of the special police unit, Oleg Zakharchenko, was killed and four policemen sustained injuries in the shoot-out.

Mirzokhouja Ahmadov was one of field commanders of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) in the Rasht Valley during the country''s civil war in the mid-1990s but was later appointed to a senior police post as part of a broader attempt at reintegrating former rebel leaders.  He continues heading the regional directorate for combating organized crime as before and does not plead guilty.  “Those who sent the police unit to the region should be made answerable for this incident,” Ahmad said in one of his interviews with Asia-Plus.