• Text size  | | |
• Email this document
• Printable version

Uzbek border guards give no information about missing Tajik

January 11, 2012

KHUJAND, Tajikistan – The whereabouts of a Tajik citizen detained by the Uzbek military last month remains unknown, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.

Colonel Sharif Nazarov, the police chief in Tajikistan's northern Sughd Province, said Hamzaali Khidirov was reportedly detained after crossing into Uzbekistan during a hunting trip.

Nazarov said the Uzbek authorities have not provided any information about Khidirov.

But villagers in Sarvak, which borders on the Pop district of Uzbekistan's Namangan Province, told RFE/RL on January 10 that a group of Uzbek border guards and officers in military uniforms detained Khidirov at his home on December 23.

They said the men searched his home and confiscated a hunting gun allegedly belonging to Khidirov's friend in Uzbekistan.

Iqbol Nuriddinov, a relative of Khidirov, told RFE/RL that Khidirov is a shepherd who sometimes goes on hunting trips with a friend who lives in Uzbekistan.

Nuriddinov said that on December 23 Khidirov was detained after returning home from such a hunting trip.

He said the family wants to find out where Khidirov is but are afraid to travel to Uzbekistan and make inquiries

Link to original story on RFE/RL website

Topics: Disappeared persons,