Tajikistan, April 17: Tajikistan’s government troops have killed a top militant commander who had been the country’s most-wanted criminal for more than a decade.
Abdullo Rakhimov, widely known as Mullo Abdullo, was killed along with 14 of his followers during a military operation in Samsolik village of Rasht Valley on Friday, the Associated Press reported Saturday.
At least two members of Interior Ministry and State National Security Committee (GKNB) forces died during the operation, according to Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry spokesman Makhmadullo Asadulloyev.
The 61-year-old Rakhimov and his followers were behind last year’s attack on Tajikistan’s army forces in Kamarob Gorge. At least 26 soldiers lost their lives in the ambush.
Rakhimov was a top commander during Tajikistan’s 1992-97 civil war between President Emomali Rakhmon’s government and the United Tajik Opposition.
After the 1997 peace treaty that ended the Tajik civil war, Rakhimov refused to lay down his arms and continued to fight the government. He eluded military pursuit in 2000 and fled to Afghanistan, where he remained until 2009.
Interior Ministry chief of staff Tokhir Normatov said Rakhimov returned to Tajikistan in spring of 2009 and had been in the Rasht Mountains since then. He was planning to mount a campaign of terror against the government before he was killed.
Impoverished former Soviet republic, Tajikistan, has been waging a battle against militants since the end of the civil war.
——–Agencies