DUSHANBE, April 23, 2015, Asia-Plus – A joint statement released by the Interior Ministry press center and the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) public relations center today notes that persons who left the threatening letter at School # 44 in the Boghiston village of the Rasht district on the night of April 17-18 also burned two maps of Tajikistan and school news bulletins have been detained.

They are reportedly the 15-year-old Nematullo Rahimov from that school and his 16-year-old cousin Khurshed Rahimov.

According to the statement, Khurshed Rahimov’s stepmother, Mrs. Zarifamoh Akramova, says her stepson is mentally ill and he burned up a part of their house by an accident two years ago.

Z. Akramova works as a cleaner at School # 44.  On April 17, she was going to go to a party and she asked Khurshed Rahimov on April 17 to lock the school after lessons.

The teenagers reportedly confessed to burning two maps of Tajikistan and school news bulletins.  According to them, they burned the maps and school news bulletins because it was dark in the school corridor.

The Interior Ministry and the SCNS stress that the incident is not politically motivated and it is just vandalism.

The Interior Ministry and the SCNS call on representatives of media outlets not to create an atmosphere of fear and panic and prepare reports on the basis of verified facts but not rumors and guesswork, the statement says.

We will recall that local officials said an anonymous letter demanding female teachers quit their jobs or face death had been left at a school in the Rasht district.

The Kamarob village chief Rahmatojon Salimov told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on April 20 that vandals who left the threatening letter at the village school over the weekend also burned two maps of Tajikistan and school news bulletins.

"The letter says it''s the final warning to female teachers to quit within a month or face severe consequences," Salimov said.  He said the letter included a death threat.

Police declined to comment, according to RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.