DUSHANBE, February 4, Asia-Plus  -- The civil funeral rites were conducted in Dushanbe today afternoon in honor of the Tajik OMON (Special Purpose Police Squad) commander, Colonel Oleg Zakharchenko, who was killed in the Rasht district on February 2.    

 Several hundred people, including senior representatives from the Ministry of Interior (MoI),  attended today’s funeral for Colonel Zakharchenko to pay their tribute and respects to his memory.   

Addressing the civil funeral rites, the Minister of Interiors Mahmadnazar Solehov, noted that Colonel Zakharchenko had participants in dozens of special operations to combat organize crime in the country and been given many government wards, including the Spitamen Order.       

Oleg Zakharchenko was buried in the republican cemetery in Dushanbe. 

A special group comprising officers from the MoI and the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) has been set up to investigate the incident.     

As it had been reported earlier, Oleg Zakharchenko was killed and four OMON servicemen were seriously injured in the settlement of Gharm, administrative center of the Rasht district, some 220 kilometers east of Dushanbe, on Saturday under uncertain circumstances.

According to an official version of the MoI, Colonel Zakharchenko heading a group of OMON servicemen arrived in Gharm to make preparations for holding a meeting of local police department to hear reports.

Mirzokhouja Ahmadov, the chief of the directorate for combating organized crime for Rasht Valley (a number of districts in eastern Tajikistan) , who is one of former commanders of the United Tajik Opposition integrated into the government law enforcement agencies, thought that they had arrived to arrest him and opened fire at them.  As a result Zakharchenko was killed and four OMON servicemen were seriously injured. 

In the meantime, some sources at the law enforcement agencies said that Colonel Zakharchenko heading a group of OMON servicemen on two KAMAZs (heavy truck) had arrived in Gharm to arrest Mirzokhouja Ahmadov.  As a result of skirmish between OMON servicemen and Ahmadov’s supporters, Zakharchenko was killed and four OMON servicemen were injured.  The injured OMON servicemen were taken to a hospital in Dushanbe.  Ahmadov and his supporters hid in the mountains.