DUSHANBE, November 30, 2015, Asia-Plus – Tajik national suspected of involvement in recent mutiny in Tajikistan has reportedly been detained in Russia.

According to the press center of the Russia Federal Security Service (FSB)’s office in Chelyabinsk Oblast, a 34-year-old Tajik national suspected of involvement in the mutiny masterminded by former Tajik Deputy Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda has been detained in the city of Satka.

Besides, Tajik law enforcement authorities accuse him of terrorism, murder and organizing a criminal group, FSB’s office in Chelyabinsk Oblast said.

We will recall that former deputy defense minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda and a group of gunmen under his control launched a predawn attack on the main police station in the Vahdat Township east of the Tajik capital on September 4, and clashed later that day with security forces at a Defense Ministry building not far from the Dushanbe International Airport.  Nine police officers were killed and six others were wounded in those attacks.

Nazarzoda, his associate Colonel Junaidulloh Umarov, and several other gunmen then fled to the Romit Gorge, adjacent to Vahdat, where security forces were targeting them in a large-scale manhunt.

Tajik officials say 30 members of the group have been killed and more than 100 others arrested during the operation and that weapons and vehicles have been seized from the group.

Abduhalim Nazarzoda, 51, had served as deputy defense minister since January 2014.  He joined the security forces in June 1997 when the government and the opposition signed a peace accord to end the five-year civil war.