Group 44 has stopped cooperating with the investigative commission, which was set up in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) by president’s instruction on December 9 to investigate the November 25 incident in the region.

Khujamri Pirmamadov, a spokesman for Group 44, says they have stopped cooperating with the commission until their demands are met. 

According to him, they have submitted their demands to M. Hakimzoda, the head of the investigative commission of the Prosecutor-General’s Office.  

They made the following demands:

1.         The investigative commission should stop unilateral investigation into the November 25-28 events.  The commission has instituted criminal proceedings against ordinary citizens and has not instituted criminal proceedings against persons guilty of murder of three residents of Roshtqala district and wounding of 17 people.

2.        Dismissal of the chief of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’ Office in GBAO Salimzoda in connection with the abuse of his official duties, obstruction of the investigation and bringing him to justice.

3.       All officers, who participated in the operation in Tavdem village, should be fired and arrested.

4.     The same measures should be taken against law enforcement officers, who used firearms against unarmed people.

5.  Instituting criminal proceedings against the chief of the Khorog Police Department Abdurahmon Muborakshozoda for giving false evidence (according to Pirmamadov, Muborakshozoda claimed he had been beaten, but it had not happened).

The Group 44 spokesman says their representatives will resume their work in the commission only after their demands are met. 

“Taken as a whole, there is no investigation; there is only pressure on the people and accusations against people.   A person can be jailed for cutting down a tree, but nobody wants to investigate the killing of people.  We won't work like this anymore.  Either all those guilty are punished, or we will not cooperate at all,” Pirmamadov said.  

“If our demands are not met, then let the people of the region decide how to continue, as we represent the people and are accountable to them,” he added. 

Group 44 was set up from among the protesters in Khorog, the capital of GBAO, on November 28 to monitor the implementation of agreements reached between the protesters and GBAO’s government.

Six members of Group 44 joined the investigation team, which is investigating the circumstances of the death of the resident of Roshtqala district Gulbiddin Ziyobekov.

Recall, several thousand people participated in the four-day protest rally in the central square of Khorog following the killing of Gulbiddin Ziyobekov by law enforcement authorities.  It ended on the evening of November 28, after the protesters and the authorities reached the agreement.  The authorities agreed to refrain from any kind of persecution of the protesters, to conduct a quick, impartial, and effective investigation into the deaths of Gulbiddin Ziyobekov, Gulnazar Murodbekov, and Tutisho Amirshoyev, to restore Internet access in GBAO and terminate the permanent checkpoints in the city.

However, the authorities have not yet fulfilled any of the terms of the agreement reached between them and protesters on November 28.