DUSHANBE, April 4, 2014, Asia-Plus – The Tajik law enforcement authorities say one of former members of an organized criminal group led by Abdullo Rahimov, also known as Mullo Abdullo, has been detained in the Nourobod district (Rasht Valley).

The Interior Ministry’s website reports that an operation carried out by police officers in the Nourobod district on April 2 led to the arrest of the 54-year-old local resident on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons.

The detainee was allegedly member of an organized criminal group of Mullo Abdullo.  An assault rifle Kalashnikov was reportedly found hidden in the yard of his father’s house.

We will recall that Abdullo Rahimov, widely known as Mullo Abdullo, was killed on April 15, 2011 along with 14 of his confederates in the Rasht district, some 50 kilometers west of Gharm, the administrative center of Rasht district.  Tajik authorities said Mullo Abdullo and his followers were behind the 2011 attack on Tajik Army forces in Kamarob Gorge in the Rasht district in which at least 26 soldiers died.

Mullo Abdullo was one of United Tajik Opposition (UTO) field commanders during the country’s 1992-1997 civil war.  He never accepted the peace treaty and reportedly fled to Afghanistan.  In 2009, a few reports surfaced that he had returned to Tajikistan and was hiding in the mountains around the Rasht district.