DUSHANBE, October 26, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Some website are currently inaccessible due to technical problems, Rahmonali Hasanova, the head of the main communications and informatization directorate within the Ministry of Transport and Communications, told reporters in Dushanbe on October 26.

According to him, a cable has been damaged and it will be reintroduced into operation within the next few days.  Hasanov, however, found difficulty in explaining why the damaged cable had affected only several websites while sites of other Tajik electronic media have remained accessible.

“I do not know,” said he, “Representatives from the communications regulatory agency must know this more precisely.  We were just informed that the sites are inaccessible for technical reasons.” 

We will recall that Ms. Parvina Ibodova, the chairperson of the Association of Internet-Providers of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus on October 11 that acting on order from authorities, Internet providers in Tajikistan have barred access to a number of websites.  The access to ferghana.ru, centrasia.ru and tjknews.com has been blocked.  According to her, the access to these sites has been closed following a letter from the Ministry of Transport and Communications to all Internet providers in the country.  The letter under the hand of Deputy Minister of transport and Communications, Beg Zuhurov, ordered the Internet providers to block access to the mentioned sties, Ibodova said.

Experts attribute inaccessibility of the websites to a military operation carried out by government forces in Rasht district.  Tajik authorities have accused the media of biased and one-sided coverage of the September 19 attack in Rasht.