×
Enjoying ad-free content?
Since July 1, 2024, we have disabled all ads to improve your reading experience.
This commitment costs us $10,000 a month. Your support can help us fill the gap.
Support us
Our journalism is banned in Russia. We need your help to keep providing you with the truth.

Tajik Security Chiefs Fired After Jailbreak

Men dressed as World War II Soviet soldiers, and a girl, taking part in a military parade in Tiraspol on Thursday. Gleb Garanich

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — Tajikistan's president fired almost the entire leadership of his security services Thursday as the first of 25 Islamist militants was recaptured more than a week after an armed jailbreak in the country.

The armed prisoners, including Russian and Afghan nationals accused of plotting a coup, killed five guards in a shootout when they escaped from a detention center in the capital, Dushanbe, last week.

A source in the security services said one prisoner, a former inmate of the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, had been apprehended as the result of a special operation in the town of Vakhdat, 20 kilometers east of Dushanbe.

The source said Tajik authorities suspected Ibrahim Nasriddinov of helping to organize the escape. He said a second armed suspect was surrounded in a house in a nearby village.

President Emomali Rakhmon's press service said Thursday that Saimumin Yatimov, a former ambassador to Belgium, had been appointed head of the State Committee for National Security, Tajikistan's successor to the KGB.

Yatimov was the only senior security official to escape the cull. He joined the security service several months ago as its deputy head.

His predecessor, Khairidin Abdurakhimov, had served in the position for 11 years. Rakhmon's press service said he had asked to be relieved of his duties.

Authorities in Tajikistan, which shares a porous 1,340-kilometer border with Afghanistan, ordered a manhunt for the fugitives when they escaped on Aug. 23 and requested assistance from Interpol, as well as Afghan and Russian security forces.

The escaped prisoners were among the 46 people to whom Tajikistan's Supreme Court in August handed down long jail terms on accusations that they had planned to overthrow the authorities.

They included four Afghan citizens and six Russians from Dagestan and Chechnya. All were arrested in July 2009 in eastern Tajikistan, the scene of fierce civil war battles in the 1990s.

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter

Our weekly newsletter contains a hand-picked selection of news, features, analysiss and more from The Moscow Times. You will receive it in your mailbox every Friday. Never miss the latest news from Russia. Preview
Subscribers agree to the Privacy Policy

A Message from The Moscow Times:

Dear readers,

We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."

These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.

By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.

Once
Monthly
Annual
Continue
paiment methods
Not ready to support today?
Remind me later.

Read more