DUSHANBE. Oct 12 (Interfax) - Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has promised not to prosecute members of illegal armed groups in the Rasht valley if they lay down arms.
"The Tajik president came up with the following initiative: if members of criminal groups in the Rasht valley lay down arms, they will not be prosecuted," Tajik Prosecutor General Sherkhon Salimzoda told a news conference on Tuesday.
"Some small gangs that are hiding in the mountains are still active in the east of the country. We have detained 14 people involved in recent events; several more such people were killed," Salimzoda said.
There is Zainolobuddin Mannonov, a domullo, or spiritual leader, of the Nurobad district, 135 kilometers east of Dushanbe, among those detained. "Domullo's connection to terrorist groups active in Rasht was established," he said, adding that Mannonov was detained together with four of his sons.
"This domullo studied in Pakistan and under the pretext of religious education he was preparing young men for subversive actions at his home," Salimzoda said.
It was reported earlier that 16 militants were killed and another seven were wounded in the operation led by the government forces, which started on September 22.
The operation was launched after a group of Tajik National Guard servicemen was attacked on September 19 en route from the center of the Rasht district to Dushanbe to strengthen checkpoints, which was part of the operation to detain 25 criminals who had escaped from a Dushanbe detention facility in the early hours of August 23. Twenty-eight servicemen were killed and 12 were wounded in the attack.
The authorities blamed the attack on the leaders of the former Tajik opposition, which fought against Tajikistan's secular administration from 1992-1997.
The authorities said the attack was led by militant leaders Abdullo Rakhimov, Mirzokhudzhi Akhmadov, and Alovuddin Davlatov, as well as mercenaries from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Russia's Chechnya.
On October 6, a Mil Mi-8 helicopter of the Tajik National Guard crashed in the Rasht district. Seven guardsmen and 21 servicemen of the Alfa special squad were killed.
Since the beginning of the special operation mobile and land telephone communications have been blocked in east Tajikistan.