A resident of Khujand is behind the killing that took the lives of 60-year-old entrepreneur couple Maqsoudjon Nematulloyev and Inobat Nematulloyeva, Qudratullo Nazarzoda, the chief of the Sughd police directorate, told reporters in Khujand, the capital of the Sughd province, on February 2.

He noted that several persons had been detained on suspicion of committing that brutal murder. 

Nazarzoda refrained from giving further details “in the interest of the investigation.”

Sughd chief police officer further noted that two other crimes classified as murder have not yet been solved.  

“It is the case of a girl from the Istaravshan district, Ganjina Qayumova, who has been reported missing since August 25, 2017 and the case of a 25-year-old woman from the Ayni district, Nuqra Jumayeva, who has been reported missing since august 2017,” Nazarzoda noted.

Recall, six persons have been detained in the Sughd province on suspicion of killing the entrepreneur couple.  

The detainees are reportedly residents of Dushanbe and the Khatlon province. 

As it had been reported earlier, 60-year-old entrepreneur couple Maqsoudjon Nematulloyev and Inobat Nematulloyeva were found brutally killed in their house in the Unji jamaot, the Bobojon-Ghafourov district of the Sughd province in the morning of October 19, 2017. 

“Their son found them killed while came to their house to wake them,” Muhsin Yusupov, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s office for Sughd province, told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

According to him, a special group has been set up to investigate the incident.

Meantime, the couple’s relatives say they were tortured before being killed.  Their mouths were closed with scotch tape and there were traces of torture on their bodies, the relatives said.  

Maqsoudjon Nematulloyev and Inobat Nematulloyeva were running a shop at Khujand’s Panshanbe bazaar.  They were frequently lending money to entrepreneurs and have many debtors. 

A source at the Tajik law enforcement authorities says the criminals seized about 70,000 U.S. dollars and other valuables.