"My relatives from the Rasht Valley say that the local government is in control only during the day. As soon as night falls, others take power," says a cab driver taking us from Dushanbe to the city airport.
The middle-aged man, who gives only his first name, Nabi, speaks with an audible eastern Tajik accent.
As security forces in Tajikistan hunt for suspected Islamic militants in the Rasht Valley, the country’s Defense Ministry is lashing out at media outlets that have questioned the government’s crisis-management skills. Far from cowering in the face of a government attack, however, media outlets are preparing to fight back.
After declining to intervene in southern Kyrgyzstan’s turmoil over the summer, the Collective Security Treaty Organization is facing a fresh challenge in Tajikistan. And once again the Russia-led security group appears set to refrain from acting.
It was just a few weeks ago that Tajik President Emomali Rahmon was traveling to his country's eastern Rasht region on a mission of goodwill, opening a new college there and discussing economic and social issues with locals.
Militants, some of whom may have been involved in a massive prison break in late August, are being blamed for a raid that left at least 23 Tajik soldiers dead. The attack marks the boldest in a string of recent incidents that is posing a serious security challenge for President Imomali Rahmon’s administration.
Tajikistan’s security services are in the spotlight following two recent explosions and an audacious jailbreak in the Central Asian nation. The violence may be an indicator of faulty government personnel policies, some experts suggest.
At least 25 inmates, including alleged members of a militant Islamic group, escaped from a maximum-security prison in Tajikistan on August 23 in a series of events that left six guards dead. The fugitives were believed to be headed for the Rasht Valley, a remote area of eastern Tajikistan where Islamic militants have been active in the past.
Uzbek refugees living in Kazakhstan’s biggest city, Almaty, say they had a rude awakening on the morning of June 9, when law-enforcement officers carried out a coordinated raid that resulted in the detention of dozens of men.
Summer has traditionally been the season when Islamic radicals stir up trouble in Central Asia. Some experts believe the risk of radical activity may be higher this year, due to ongoing instability in Kyrgyzstan following the April ouster of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Others, however, believe the Islamic threat is overblown.
