DUSHANBE, April 24, 2013, Asia-Plus – Representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have reportedly begun providing consultative assistance to the investigation group involved in the search operation for two missing Dushanbe cousins.

An official source at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) says the FBI is expected to deliver special equipment to Tajikistan that intensifies the search for missing persons.

Tajik law enforcement authorities hope that the state-of-the art technical equipment will help in the search for cousins Malika and Sabina.

We will recall that Cousins Malika, 6, and Sabina, 4, Aralova were last seen on March 25 when they went outside to play in the yard not far from the Sadbarg Center in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jumakhon Karimov, deputy chief of the department for combating human trafficking, Interior Ministry’s Organized Crime Control Directorate (UBOP) told journalists on April 23 that  investigators now knew the whereabouts of the two missing girls.  He added that the girls’ case was now classified as a kidnapping rather than a missing-persons case.