DUSHANBE. May 26 (Interfax) - Unrest in Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous province, where clashes claimed five lives last week, has subsided.
However, the local population has expressed fear that the government will mount its military presence in the region, which lies in the Pamir Mountains in the east of the country.
The government denied having moved any extra armed forces into Gorno-Badakhshan.
"Reports by some Tajik and foreign media yesterday that more than 100 soldiers and officers … had been airlifted to Khorugh by helicopter are untrue," Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Faridun Makhmadaliyev told reporters. Khorugh, which lies 520 kilometers from the capital Dushanbe, is Gorno-Badakhshan's administrative center.
"Today the situation in Khorugh is under the complete control of the law enforcement structures of the province," Makhmadaliyev said.
On May 21, gunfire broke out between police and a group of alleged drug traffickers who had arrived at the Khorugh police station to rescue a man arrested when transporting a 16-kilogram load of drugs, the Interior Ministry said.
One of the attackers was killed and two others were wounded in the clash. A stray bullet killed a passerby, an 18-year-old student. Two policemen also died and another three were injured.
The same day, an infuriated crowd burned down the buildings of the police station, prosecutor's office and provincial court in Khorugh.
The State National Security Committee said that, early on May 24, three gunmen attacked the headquarters in Khorugh of its provincial branch, and that one of them was killed and the others wounded by return fire. The Committee said the two wounded attackers were currently under arrest and taking treatment at a local hospital.
A spontaneous rally in Khorugh on May 24 urged an amnesty for those accused of the May 21 arson.
In July 2012, Khorugh was the site of an armed operation against militants that, according to official reports, killed 43 people, both militants and security personnel. The operation was commanded by Sherali Khairulloyev, the president's national security aide.
A rally in Khorugh on Thursday demanded "finishing the investigation into [the 2012 operation], with guarantees of political and social rehabilitation of their participants, and releasing political convicts."
Gorno-Badakhshan is mainly populated by ethnic minorities - Shughnis, Rushanis, and Wakhis - that speak languages belonging to the Iranian family, as does Persian, Tajikistan's official language.
During Tajikistan's civil war of 1992-1997, the Gorno-Badakhshan population supported the United Tajik Opposition, the adversary of the Popular Front, which brought current President Emomali Rahmon to power.