DUSHANBE -- Relatives of a Tajik man from the country's restive Gorno-Badakhshan region say Russia extradited him to Tajikistan, where he may face illegal incarceration and arbitrary prosecution.
The relatives, who spoke with RFE/RL on November 28, said 34-year-old Amid Alifshoev, who has been living in Moscow for five years, was detained by Russian police last week and extradited days later. They said that they do not know why he was detained and extradited and what charges he may face in Tajikistan.
On November 17, another Gorno-Badakhshan native, Firuz Mamadyorbekov, was arrested in Moscow and has been held incommunicado since then.
The Pamir Daily News website, which monitors developments in the region, said earlier that at least 20 of the region's natives had been detained in Moscow and forcibly taken to Tajikistan in the past six months.
Relatives and rights defenders have said that the arrests in Moscow were most likely linked to mass protests in Badakhshan that were violently dispersed by the authorities in May.
Deep tensions between the Tajik government and residents of the volatile region have simmered since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Protests are rare in the tightly controlled Central Asian country, where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled with an iron fist for nearly three decades.
The latest crackdown on activists in Gorno-Badakhshan followed protests initially sparked by anger over the lack of an investigation into the 2021 death of an activist while in police custody and the refusal by regional authorities to consider the resignation of regional Governor Alisher Mirzonabot and Rizo Nazarzoda, the mayor of the regional capital, Khorugh.
The rallies intensified after one of the protesters, 29-year-old Zamir Nazrishoev, was killed by police on May 16, prompting the authorities to launch what they called a "counterterrorist operation."
The escalating violence in the region has sparked a call for restraint from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Western diplomatic missions in Tajikistan, and human rights groups.