Tajik borders tightened after deadly extremist jailbreak

DUSHANBE: Twenty-five extremist militants serving long jail terms in Tajikistan have escaped from prison, killing guards and sparking fears they could cross into neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

The inmates broke free late Sunday from a detention centre of Tajikistan’s State Committee of National Security in the capital Dushanbe, attacking guards and seizing their arms, a representative of the committee told AFP.

“As a result, one of the guards was killed, 25 armed inmates escaped from jail, changing into fatigues,” the official said, citing a statement.

Officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, described the inmates as Islamic militants convicted of terrorism and drug trafficking many of whom were serving sentences ranging from 30 years to life.

Following their prison break, the inmates raided a nearby detention centre of the justice ministry in the early hours of Monday where they killed four guards and fled, the official said.

An official at the country’s interior ministry, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the escapees went to the Rasht Valley in the east of the country, adding that most of them are from that region and know it well.

Authorities have beefed up security across airports, railway stations and roads and are planning to deploy armoured vehicles and special forces in the east to recapture the escapees, officials said.

Tajikistan, where a bloody civil war between extremist forces and backers of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, shares a porous 1,300-kilometre border with Afghanistan.

Military officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, expressed concern that the 25 criminals may attempt to illegally cross the border into northern Afghanistan.

Border guards were put on high alert to prevent the escaped militants from crossing the border, a spokesman for border guards told AFP.

Posts on the border with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and China have also been put on high alert, the spokesman said.

The escaped militants include nationals of Afghanistan and six Russian citizens, all of them natives of the volatile North Caucasus region, where Russian authorities are battling an extremist insurgency.

Last Friday Tajikistan’s Supreme Court handed down prison sentences of 19.5 years to each of the five Russians, while the sixth was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The men were part of the militant group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and had been accused of seeking to topple the government in a riot in the east of the country last summer.

Earlier Monday, Rakhmon convened an extraordinary meeting with law enforcement and military officials, ordering them to capture the escaped militants.

The United States, which fights the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, has been sending non-lethal US supplies for its troops there through Tajikistan and is planning to build a 10-million dollar training centre for armed forces in the country to boost its hand in the region. —AFP