Tajikistan’s President Imomali Rahmon has promised he will soon visit Gorno-Badakhshan, the mountainous eastern region where government security forces carried out a secretive military operation this summer.
Tajikistan’s most active opposition party has been hit by a spate of attacks in recent weeks, at least two of which appear linked to late July clashes between government security troops and armed groups in the restive autonomous province of Gorno-Badakhshan.
Dennis Ryll, a retired doctor from Las Vegas, was looking to take an exotic vacation, but adventure-seeking turned scary when he found himself caught in the middle of a firefight between government forces and local armed groups in Tajikistan’s restive region of Gorno-Badakhshan.
With armed groups in Tajikistan’s restive east ignoring demands to surrender their weapons, authorities in Dushanbe may find themselves hard-pressed to avoid fanning a local insurgency. Any new government attack could prompt a cycle of violence that proves difficult to contain, experts caution.
Reports of civilian casualties trickled out of Tajikistan’s mountainous east on July 25 as security officials announced a ceasefire and demanded militants hand over the local warlord targeted in the offensive, launched a day earlier.
