Two Tajik military officers stabbed to death amid recruitment drive

Police say they have yet to determine the assailants' identity or the motive behind the attack

DUSHANBE, TAJIKISTAN: Two military officers from a conscription office in ex-Soviet Tajikistan were stabbed to death amid a recruitment drive for the country's impoverished and violence-plagued armed forces, police told AFP on Monday.

The attack, which took place on the streets of the capital Dushanbe on Saturday, targeted defence officials actively involved in the roundup of Tajik soldiers for compulsory military service, a process synonymous with violent kidnappings.

Police said they had yet to determine the assailants' identity or the motive behind the attack, which also left two other officers in a serious condition.



Defence ministry spokesman Faridun Makhmadaliev ruled out the possibility that the killings were tied to the unpopular forced recruitment into the Central Asian country's military.

"We are looking at different versions," Makhmadaliev told AFP on Monday. "But it is not connected with the recruitment of young people for compulsory service in the army."

Local civil society groups have long protested against the forced recruitment of soldiers in the country.



Hazing and desertion are commonplace in the Tajik armed forces, where salaries are low and conditions trying.

A military sergeant last year was sentenced to nine years in jail for beating a conscript to death.