DUSHANBE -- Rustamjon Davlatov is mourning the death of his son, Navruz, but his grief is mixed with the “shock and disbelief” that the 23-year-old was listed as being involved in a deadly hostage-taking at a Russian prison last week.
“We are faraway here. He was inside the four walls of [the prison]. I don’t know what went on there,” Davlatov said, fighting back tears. “What can we possibly do?”
Unverified images posted on various Russian websites depict knife-brandishing men who identify themselves as Islamic State (IS) militants and claim to have taken control of the Surovikino Prison in the southwestern Volgograd region on August 23.
Four prison guards were stabbed to death and several other were wounded in the incident, officials say.
Russian authorities have not publicly disclosed the names of the hostage-takers, all of whom were killed by special forces, according to police.
But the state news agency TASS identified Davlatov’s son, Navruz Rustamjon, and a fellow Tajik inmate Nazirjon Toshov, 28, as well as Uzbek nationals Ramzidin Toshev and Temur Khusinov as the perpetrators.
Three of the men, including the two Tajiks, were serving prison terms on drug-trafficking charges. The fourth man was convicted of manslaughter.
Davlatov, who lives in a modest one-story house in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, says he spoke to his son three days before the hostage crisis. He insists it was an ordinary conversation, with the two discussing the son’s dreams for his life after prison.
“He told me he wanted to return home and get married and study at the university. He asked me to find a bride for him,” Davlatov told RFE/RL. “He had plans and dreams for the future, but they’re all destroyed now.”
Rustamjon, the youngest of seven siblings, had an ordinary upbringing in a family of modest means and “did well at school and treated everyone with respect,” said Davlatov, a retired theater performer who now works at a state catering service.
Russian officials allegedly tried to recruit Rustamjon to fight in the war in Ukraine, but “we always told him not to accept it despite all the hardships in prison,” the father said.
Rustamjon went to Russia when he was just 18 to work and send money to his family, according to Davlatov. He worked at a car wash and a warehouse before being sentenced to seven years in prison in 2022.
In a graphic video that purportedly shows part of the hostage-taking, one of the self-proclaimed militants points to the bloodied bodies of several men in uniform and says the prison guards were murdered for persecuting Muslims.
"We killed those who humiliated and tortured Muslims. They took away books from some of us, prayer rugs from some of us," the man in the video claims.
Another man wearing blood-soaked gloves holds what seems to be a black IS flag. He was identified by Russian media as Rustamjon. But his father says Rustamjon “did not pray and was not religious at all.”
'We Were No Longer In Touch'
In Nazirjon Toshov’s hometown of Tursunzoda, some 60 kilometers west of Dushanbe, relatives are reluctant to talk about him.
Toshov’s mother is dead and his father left the city several years ago. Toshov’s former wife moved to Russia after their divorce in 2021, taking the couple’s young daughter with her, according to his former in-laws.
Mehri Saidova, the grandmother of Toshov’s ex-wife, said that she hasn’t seen the images purportedly showing him during the hostage-taking.
“I heard about it from my daughter,” she told RFE/RL. “We didn’t know things would end like this.”
Saidova said she was questioned by Tajik authorities after the news of the hostage drama in Russia broke. But the grandmother insists she doesn’t know much about Toshov’s life in recent years as they “were no longer in touch.”
Officials in Tursunzoda declined to comment to RFE/RL.
The government in Dushanbe said in a statement on August 23 they were working with Russian authorities to “identify and apprehend other members of the terrorist organization that carried out this crime.”
But the statement did not mention any involvement of Tajik nationals in the deadly incident.
The hostage crisis comes five months after 10 Tajik citizens were arrested in connection with a terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow that killed 145 people.
The massacre, claimed by IS, led to a rise in xenophobic attacks on Tajiks and other Central Asian migrant workers in Russia. Thousands of Tajik nationals were either deported or denied entry to Russia. Others returned home due to threats or bad treatment from locals.
Migrants fear that the latest hostage-taking in Volgograd will further exacerbate the already difficult situation for millions of Central Asian workers in Russia.
