DUSHANBE, February 29, Asia-Plus  -- Former chief of commandant’s office at the Murgab border unit Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov, who is leader of illegal  armed formation active in Khorog, intends to apologize to people today, a high-ranking official with the Ministry of Interior (MoI) told Asia-Plus today morning.  

“Repentance will take place in the Bar Khorog area, where Mamadboqirov lives,” said the MoI official.  “According to information received, Mamadboqirov and his supporters have decided to hand over weapons to police.”    

As it had been reported earlier, in accordance with ultimatum made by the GBAO police directorate on February 26, members of the armed formation of Mamadboqirov should have handed over their weapons by 3:00 p.m. of Wednesday.  Later, the ultimatum term was extended to Thursday evening.  According to the MoI, they have to date handed over some 30 firearms to the Khorog police department.       

The MoI official noted that according to information the ministry received from Khorog, members of Mamadboqirov’s group now have 18 sub-machine-guns, grenade launcher and other weapons.  

We will recall that a high-ranking official with a MoI told Asia-plus on Monday that a group of armed persons fired at a building of the Khorog police department in the evening of February 23.  According to him, a group numbering seven persons, led by Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov, former commanders of one of frontier posts in the Murgab district, fired several times at the building of the Khorog police department.  They then burst into the building and beat one of duty officers, the MoI official said.