DUSHANBE, June 20, Asia-Plus  -- Additional troops  have been transferred to the region for protection of the national border, the GBAO governor Qodir Qosim announced, speaking to people that gathered near the building of the GBAO regional government in Khorog today again. 

Some 300 people gathered today in front of the government building in Khorog, protesting news that the government had sent additional troops.

We will recall that the demonstrators dispersed on June 18, vowing to return if their demands are not fulfilled.  One of their demands was to withdraw the additional troops sent to the region. 

Mr. Qosim noted that if authorities had wanted to carry out any operation in the region they would have carried out it without transferring additional troops.  

“I guarantee that peaceful population will not suffer; otherwise we are ready to be answerable for that,” the governor said.    

Having listened to the governor, one organizers of the rally, Alim Sherzamonov asked, “If the border is protected by border troops of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB), what for where troops of the ministries of interior and defense sent to the region?”  

Qosim noted that all those structures will fulfill their duties.  “There ought not to forget that bodies and units of the ministry of defense function in border areas as well.”     

Asked about the demand for retirement of the regional prosecutor Rashid Gulmadshoyev, the governor said that a group of officers of the prosecutor-general’s office had arrived in region to inspect activities of Gulmadshoyev.  “Inspection is under way, and we do not have the right to accuse anybody unfoundedly,” Qosim said.  He asked demonstrators to disperse.      

However, demonstrators refused to disperse and the rally is still going on.