DUSHANBE, November 11, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- 28 participants of the last year’s events in Rasht district have got long jail terms.  Among them is 76-year-old Muzaffar Davlatov, the father Alovuddin Davlatov (Ali Bedaki), a militant leader who was accused of killing dozens of soldiers in an ambush last year.

The Supreme Court sentenced seven of them – Haidar Boboyev, Nozimjon Bahodurov, Jamshed Nosirov, Jamshed Raibov, Sunatullo Shukurov and Rustam Tohirjonov – to life in prison on November 9.

The remaining 21 defendants were sent to prison for between two and 30 years.  Among them is 76-year-old father Alovuddin Davlatov (Ali Bedaki), Muzaffar Davlatov, who got a jail term of seven years for aiding and abetting militants.

Three other persons from this group were found guilty of failing to inform the authorities about the crime and were sentenced to prison between two and three years.

We will recall that a group of militants attacked the military convoy of the Ministry of Defense in Kamarob Gorge, Rasht district on September 19, 2010.

The authorities accused Abdullo Rahimov (Mullo Abdullo) and Alovuddin Davlatov (Ali Bedaki) of involvement in the September 19 ambush in Kamarob Gorge that killed at least 28 troops.

Following that incident, the government forces began a counterterrorism operation in Rasht on September 22, 2010.

Last autumn, the law enforcement said several times that the operation in the Rasht Valley was over, but then admitted it is continuing.  On November 9, 2010, the head of the State Committee for National Security, Saymumin Yatimov, said that the operation in Rasht was almost over.  He recalled that some 20 gunmen had been killed and some 30 others either surrendered or sided with government forces in pursuit of the militants.

The law enforcement authorities reported on January 4, 2011 that one of the suspected attackers Alovuddin Davlatov and his seven confederates have been killed in a special operation in Rasht district.

In April this year, the Tajik authorities noted that military operation in Rasht Valley killed Tajikistan’s most wanted man, Abdullo Rahimov (Mullo Abdullo).  Mullo Abdullo was reportedly killed along with 14 of his followers on April 14, 2011 in the operation in the village of Samsoliq in Nourobod district, some 135 kilometers east of the capital.

Mullo Abdullo was one of UTO field commanders during the country’s 1992-1997 civil war.  He never accepted the peace treaty and reportedly fled to Afghanistan.  In 2009, a few reports surfaced that he had returned to Tajikistan and was hiding in the mountains around the Rasht district.