Tajik police kill 12 militants in eastern region.

20/10 Tass 107

DUSHANBE, October 20 (Itar-Tass) - Tajik police killed 12 militants in
an anti-terrorist operation in the east of the country. Three special task
force police officers were killed, and several others were wounded, the
republic's Interior Minister Abdurakhim Kakhkharov told a news conference
on Wednesday.
"The operation involving all law-enforcement agencies is being held in
the Rasht district with the view of detecting and neutralizing the
militants involved in the attack on the military convoy on September 19,
in which 28 soldiers and officers were killed on the spot or died later in
hospital," Kakhkharov said.
Two groups of militants led by former filed commanders of the
irreconcilable opposition Abdullo Rakhimov and Alovudin Davlatov are
fighting the government forces.
"The operation is taking place in the remote and hard-to-access
Kamarog Gorge. The situation in the Rasht district is fully under the
authorities and law-enforcement bodies' control," the Tajik police chief
underlined.
Speaking about the extremist and terrorist underground in the country,
he said two al Qaeda activists, 7 members of the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan and eight supporters of the Jamaat Tablighi movements had been
detained in the past nine months. The operation of these organizations is
banned in the territory of the country.
Overnight to August 23, 25 inmates escaped from a remand prison in
Dushanbe, vaunted as the tightest security facility.
They included hardened criminal, including members of the armed group
arrested in the summer 2009. There were six Russian citizens among them,
convicted for participation in an illegal paramilitary formation.
The Tajik authorities later blamed the runaways for attacking the
military convoy on September 19.
Independent observers said the eastern region of Tajikistan, during
the Civil War, was the stronghold of the Opposition and has remained the
main source of instability since.
On Monday, Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Khamrakhon Zarifi said the
republic has all the means and opportunities to restore order in the
eastern region of the country on its own, and does not need the assistance
of third countries.
Zarifi acknowledged however that the situation had aggravated in the
region some time ago, but "not to the extent where it can threaten the
country's national security."
According to the foreign minister, "one or two terrorist groups are
operating in the mountains, but the government has enough forces there to
keep the situation under control."
Speaker of the national parliament Shukudzhon Zukhurov has been in the
Rasht district with a peace mission since October 13.
Unofficial sources said the speaker, who is a native of the region,
had met with residents of several districts, and urged the elders to help
bring the young people -- led astray by the militants -- back to peaceful
life.
The same sources said the authorities had sent messages to the
insurgents offering them to surrender in exchange for the president's
amnesty guarantees.
-0-myz/gor