How an assassination in Gorno-Badakhshan changed Tajikistan forever

Combating for management

For the reason that finish of Tajikistan’s civil warfare, President Imomali Rahmon and his prolonged household have labored to consolidate their political and financial energy within the nation. On the similar time, they’ve sought to sideline, arrest, or kill all competitors, together with impartial leaders throughout Tajikistan. They’ve succeeded in each province apart from GBAO.

These makes an attempt to take full political and financial management of GBAO have been nonetheless ongoing in 2012, when a number of thousand Tajik authorities troops descended on Khorog – ostensibly as a part of a significant army motion to rid the realm of legal gangs.

One of the vital highly effective native leaders, Imum Imumnazarov, was killed. The federal government troops additionally tried to assassinate Colonel Boqir, however failed. On the time, Boqir was one of many final impartial leaders within the autonomous area and the beloved chief of his mahalla (native neighbourhood), Bar Khorog. He was additionally thought-about to be a key opposition determine by the federal government of Tajikistan.

This offensive quickly turned a part of a sample, with additional army incursions by central authorities in 2014, 2018, 2021 and, lastly, 2022.

The goal was clear: gaining management of GBAO would give the Tajik administration full management of the illicit commerce alongside the nation’s part of the Pamir Freeway, a 1,200km highway that runs by Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

It will additionally give the federal government management of the native economic system (partially underneath native management as a result of province’s autonomous standing) and a direct commerce path to China and the “drug capital” of Osh in Kyrgyzstan.

Native leaders

I met Colonel Boqir a number of instances over the past decade, in addition to a lot of the native leaders in Khorog overseeing faith, girls’s points, youth, mahallas, enterprise and schooling. I additionally met the heads of NGOs and the Aga Khan Improvement Community (AKDN – named after Aga Khan, the religious chief of Ismaili Muslims).

AKDN’s community of humanitarian and improvement organisations is energetic in Ismaili-dominated areas all through the world. It’s a key financial driver within the area and, as a consequence of neglect by the central authorities, many GBAO residents obtain social welfare help and even employment from ADKN establishments.

In current months, the federal government of Tajikistan has systematically killed, arrested or destroyed native leaders in GBAO, underneath the guise of “anti-terrorist” operations. The latest spherical of violence has its roots in November 2021, when peaceable protests sprang up over the army’s killing of Gulbuddin Ziyobekov, a youth chief and a Pamir.

That mobilisation was met swiftly with a violent crackdown. An settlement was struck between native leaders, however there was no additional motion on Ziyobekov’s dying. As an alternative, the federal government issued arrest warrants for lots of of residents of Khorog.