Qishloq Ovozi (Archive)

Police in Kyrgyzstan’s northeastern Naryn Province are preparing charges against a man infected with the coronavirus who refused to self-quarantine and as a result is believed to have spread the virus to at least three other people.

The man had returned from Pakistan where he attended a "da'wah" -- training in how Muslims teach Islamic beliefs and practices, which is a feature of the controversial Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat.

Kyrgyz officials have traced the arrival of the coronavirus in the country to citizens returning from the Middle East, Pakistan, and India where they traveled for religious purposes.

That fact has sparked debate in Kyrgyzstan as many people have tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from either a da'wah in Pakistan or India, or after performing the hajj, or Islamic pilgrimage, to Mecca.

The first cases of the coronavirus in Kyrgyzstan appeared in mid-March in the Suzak district of the southern Jalal-Abad Province and Nookat district in Osh Province in Kyrgyz citizens who had traveled to Saudi Arabia for the hajj.

RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Azattyk, reports that there are also seven Kyrgyz citizens in Pakistan who have tested positive for the coronavirus and another in India.

Officials have been delicate in their comments about their devout Muslim citizens who have contracted the coronavirus and brought it back to Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan’s Spiritual Board of Muslims has already ordered mosques to be temporarily closed.

At the end of March, deputy board head Zamir Rakiev warned Muslims in Kyrgyzstan not to violate rules being enforced to prevent the spread of the virus.

And a strict lockdown is in effect across the country, where 280 people have been infected with COVID-19 and four have died as of April 9.

According to reports, the man in Naryn Province, identified so far only as O.M., returned from Pakistan on the Lahore-Tashkent flight on March 15 after spending four months in Pakistan. He then flew from Tashkent to Bishkek.

State regulations require for people to be checked after arriving from abroad. The Naryn resident was tested, but only on March 30 was he confirmed as having the virus.

He was ordered to self-quarantine but defied the order. Authorities say he is responsible for giving the virus to at least three members of his family.

As of April 9, there were only 10 cases of the coronavirus registered in Naryn Province.

The man has refused medical treatment for himself or his family, saying it made them feel sick. He also posted a video on social networks claiming he was not infected and would continue to reject being treated.

On April 8, Naryn police arrested him for violating sanitary-epidemiological regulations. He could face up to five years in prison.

Others have violated self-quarantine rules and been detained, including a man in southern Osh Province who hid his condition and infected at least seven others.

Two residents of At-Bashi in Naryn Province who earlier returned from a da’wah in India also later tested positive for the coronavirus. They were ordered by medical officials to self-isolate but violated the order and attended Friday Prayers.

Bakytbek Bayzakov, the district chief where they live, said authorities have forcibly isolated the pair.

There was a similar story from Karakol, in Issyk-Kul Province, where a man returned from a da’wah in India and shortly afterward tested positive for the coronavirus.

State officials have publicly stated it is everyone's duty not to spread the virus to others and that there are consequences for those who have been infected with the coronavirus and don't self-quarantine and/or avoid medical treatment.

An increasing number of people in Kyrgyzstan are calling on the government to review its policy on religious organizations and learn more about the activities of Tablighi Jamaat, which is banned in the four other Central Asian countries, Russia, and China.

After 12 years as one of the most trusted aides of Turkmenistan's mercurial president, speculation is rife as to why Aleksandr Dadaev suddenly left his influential post in Ashgabat.

Dadaev, who headed the powerful Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan, was an obvious favorite and trusted financial associate of Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, to the point of being referred to as the Turkmen president's "wallet."

Although Dadaev's union is not involved in Turkmenistan's sales of natural gas and oil, it is connected to more than half of the other products exported from Turkmenistan.

A sudden retirement in Turkmenistan by a top official often precedes news that the official has been arrested and charged with serious crimes.

And Dadaev, 72, announced his retirement on April 1, just two weeks after being reelected to another four-year term as head of the union.

Berdymukhammedov became Turkmenistan's leader at the end of 2006 after the death of the first Turkmen president, Saparmurat Niyazov. In March 2008, Berdymukhammedov created the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and named Dadaev to head it.

It was a curious choice.

Niyazov had fired Dadaev as deputy mayor of Ashgabat in 2002 amid allegations of corruption.

The Path To Riches

Dadaev's fortunes took a sudden turn for the better after Niyazov's death, however.

According to a 2018 report from Hronika Turkmenistana, a website operated by Turkmen activists in exile, Dadaev received an enormous loan from the Central Bank in 2007, more than $10 million, at an amazing rate of 5 percent interest with a two-year grace period to expand his Gush Toplumy poultry farm.

Shortly after that, the Land Resource Service of the Agriculture Ministry allocated a 30-hectare plot for the poultry farm and 1,500 hectares of irrigated land in Akhal Province -- and 500 more hectares of land in Dashoguz Province -- to raise crops to feed the poultry.

The Energy and Industry Ministry then constructed an electricity and heating system for the poultry complex.

Since then, Gush Toplumy has provided poultry to most of the stores in Turkmenistan's cities, making Dadaev a very wealthy man.

Dadaev's fortunes rose yet again when he was made head of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan in 2008.

In October 2010, the union established the Rysgal commercial bank, nominally a private bank. Most of the country's businesses reportedly have to obtain loans and credits from the Rysgal bank.

The union also has a newspaper called Rysgal and even its own political party, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Formed in 2012, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs was Turkmenistan's second registered political party, after the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which was previously the Communist Party of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Turkmenia during the Soviet era.

According to RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, Turkmenistan's Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs now has some 24,180 members and is the main contractor for the state.

As an example, in February of this year, Berdymukhammedov allocated some $1.5 billion for the union to build a new capital city for Akhal Province.

Berdymukhammedov's son, Serdar, is the governor of Akhal Province.

Another exquisite example is the some $2.3 billion that was allocated for the union to construct a 600-kilometer, multilane highway between Ashgabat and the eastern city of Turkmenabat (formerly Charjou). Work on the highway was officially launched in January 2019 with the first aim of linking eastern Turkmenistan to the Caspian port city of Turkmenbashi in the west.

Dadaev's union also handles the construction of high-rise apartment buildings, animal markets, parking lots, suburban cottages, and even a fish farm in Balkan Province.

Turning to sports, the union played a large role in raising funds for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games that Turkmenistan hosted in September 2017 when the government found itself strapped for cash as the price for Turkmenistan's main export, natural gas, plunged and the country lost two of its three gas customers (first Russia, then Iran).

As the union's chief, Dadaev often traveled to Russia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries to try to broker deals on behalf of the union.

Sharing The Wealth

Dadaev's family also grew wealthy, of course, and his son, Vitaly, and brother, Aleksei, also head several large businesses in Turkmenistan.

And when it came time on March 17, 2020 -- the 12-year anniversary of the founding of the union -- to vote on a chairman for the union for 2020-2024, more than 600 business representatives met and reelected Dadaev.

Which is why it was so strange when the Board of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs met for a session on April 1 and announced they had accepted Dadaev's request to retire.

If Dadaev was planning on retiring, why did he not make that clear before the March 17 conference and allow representatives to elect someone new?

Dadaev's sudden retirement sparked rumors that Dadaev would soon be facing criminal charges and would have his immense wealth stripped away.

Such suspicions are fueled by the fate of Isgender Mulikov, who served as interior minister from 2009 until he was publicly humiliated and fired by Berdymukhammedov in October 2019.

He thereafter appeared on state television in December in handcuffs, confessing to have taken huge bribes and embezzled state money.

It was a familiar scenario that has played out on state television several times in recent years as the country's economy continued to worsen amid skyrocketing unemployment, shortages of basic goods, and rampant inflation.

Disgraced former top officials, who had served in high state posts for many years, have been paraded in front of state television cameras as Berdymukhammedov berated them and they meekly confessed to abusing their positions and illegally accumulating wealth and property.