DUSHANBE. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Tajik servicemen are leaving the Rasht district in the east of the republic where a security operation against armed groups has been under way since September 22, a security service source told Interfax on Tuesday.
"The majority of servicemen will leave Rasht within the next few days. Their withdrawal has already started because we can say that the operation is over," the source said.
So far, Tajik security services have refused to comment on the withdrawal of servicemen from the Rasht district, located 180 kilometers south of the republic's capital Dushanbe.
The Tajik authorities decided to wrap up the operation due to a cold spell in the mountains, with nighttime temperatures falling below zero and possible snowfalls.
"If militants remain there, they will either flee to Afghanistan or hide. Given this weather, it will be practically impossible to catch them in mountainous districts that are difficult to access," the source said.
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.
Governmental forces eliminated at least 23 militants in a special operation launched on September 23. The authorities also blamed the attack on the leaders of the former Tajik opposition, which fought against Tajikistan's secular administration from 1992-1997.
On September 30, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon came up with an ultimatum demanding that the militants surrender all arms and disband. However, on October 12, Tajik Prosecutor General Sherkhon Salimzoda said that Rahmon vowed to amnesty all those militants who lay down their arms.
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.