DUSHANBE, June 17, 2014, Asia-Plus – Tajik national news agency Khovar reports that the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office has confirmed that Alexander Sodiqov was detained in Khorog on June 16.

According to Khovar, an official statement, released by the SCNS, notes that Alexander Sodiqov, a native of the city of Panjakent in Sughd province, temporary unemployed, resident of Dushanbe, was detained in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) on June 16, 2014 at 12:15 “while carrying out task of one of foreign states.”

Sodiqov allegedly met with representative of a foreign state in Dushanbe on June 10 and he was tasked to go to Khorog to meet with Tajik citizen Alim Sherzamonov “in order to get intelligence information under the prearranged questionnaire.”

Meanwhile, Alim Sherzamonov, who is the head of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) organization in GBAO, told Asia-Plus today morning on phone that he talked to the SCNS deputy head Suhrob Panoyev on phone yesterday and Panoyev reportedly denied involvement of the SCNS in detention of Sodiqov in Khorog.

“We then phoned presidential adviser on national security Sherali Khairulloyev at around 8:00 pm.  Khairulloyev said he talked to the head of the SCNS’s office in GBAO, who said that Sodiqov was released after questioning.  At 8:30 pm, we came to the hotel, in which Alexander Sodiqov stayed, but he was not there…,” Sherzamonov said.

We will recall that Alexander Sodiqov met with Alim Sherzamonov in Khorog on June 16.  According to Alim Sherzamonov, Alexander Sodiqov was interested in the causes of the conflict situation in Khorog and in participation of representatives of civil society in peaceful settlement of such conflicts.  “We talked for an hour when the deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s office in GBAO and two officers SCNSN’s office in GBAO in civilian dress came and took Alexander Sodiqov with them,” Sherzamonov said.

A Tajikistan native, Alexander Sodiqov is reportedly doing a PhD in Comparative Politics at the University of Toronto (Canada).  He received an undergraduate degree in International Relations from the Russian-Tajik Slavonic University (RTSU) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and a Master’s degree in Conflict, Development and Security from the University of Leeds, UK.  Sodiqov has worked for local NGOs, the OSCE, and the UN in Tajikistan, and also taught at the RTSU.

We will recall that two suspected drug traffickers were killed and one was wounded by police officers on May 21.  Besides, two persons were killed and at least seven people were wounded on the same day after police opened fire on a crowd that tried to storm a police station.  The fatalities occurred during a police offensive against suspected criminals and ensuing clashes between security forces and local residents upset with the police action.

The wounded suspected drug trafficker died in the hospital Friday night (May 23), sparking the march on the building of the SCNS’s office for GBAO in Khorog.  At least one person was killed and two wounded.  Witnesses reported that one of the protesters threw a grenade at the building of the SCNS’s office and some protesters opened fire on the facility.

On May 24-25, several dozens of protesters in the GBAO spent two nights in tents in Khorog, demanding an investigation into deadly clashes on May 21 and the resignations of the local governor, police chiefs, and prosecutor. Protesters left the central square in Khorog after civil society activists and authorities agreed to investigate the May 21 incident.