Riot in Tajik prison leaves 32 dead

Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A9

May 21, 2019

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Riot in Tajik prison leaves 32 dead

Source: AFP | 00:09 UTC+8 May 21, 2019 |

Print Edition

At least 32 people were killed in a prison riot in Tajikistan, including 24 members of the Islamic State jihadist group and three guards, authorities said yesterday.

Five inmates and the three guards were initially killed by prisoners in the riot that erupted on Sunday evening and the others died in clashes with security forces trying to restore order, the justice ministry said in a statement.

The prison in Vakhdat, 17 kilometers east of the capital Dushanbe, has 1,500 inmates.

The ministry said the rioters first stabbed to death three guards and then five inmates “to intimidate” the others.

They then took other inmates hostage before opening fire in the jail’s medical facilities.

“Following a reprisal operation, 24 members of this group were killed and 35 others arrested. The hostages were freed” and calm restored, the statement said.

Two of the prisoners murdered by the rioters were well-known activists of the banned opposition group Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, the local prison service said.

Among the leaders of the riot, authorities identified Bekhruz Gulmurod, son of the former head of Tajik special forces who became a member of the IS leadership in Syria and was killed in September 2017.

The 20-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2017 for attempting to join IS in Syria. He was previously detained at Dushanbe airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul, Turkey.

Authorities said the prison was now functioning normally, with the “situation currently under control.”

The prison is a short drive from Dushanbe, with residential neighborhoods nearby. It houses inmates convicted of various crimes, including terror and extremism charges, and is secured by armed guards.

Families of inmates gathered near the prison yesterday to find out their relatives’ fate.

In November 2018, another riot claimed by IS left 26 people dead in Khujand, a city in the northeast of the country. That riot was initiated by a former IS member seeking to spark a mass escape.

Last week a Tajik court sentenced nine of the prison staff, including the head of the prison, to jail terms up to four years of prison for “negligence.”

The rioters are awaiting sentencing and face new jail terms ranging from 10 to 20 years.

Tajikistan, a mountainous country of 9 million people bordering Afghanistan, has suffered from severe conflict since it gained independence after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.

World

About Us
|
Terms of Use
|
RSS
|
Privacy Policy
|
Contact Us
|
Shanghai Call Center: 962288
|
Tip-off hotline: 52920043

沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
|
互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
|
网络视听许可证：0909346
|
广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
|
增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012

Riot in Tajik prison leaves 32 dead

Email this to your friend