Tajik government forces Wednesday declared a temporary ceasefire to allow for talks in a deadly operation to reassert government control in the southeast over militants loyal to an ex-warlord. The talks involved Tajik Defence Minister Sherali Khayrulloyev and representatives of the town of Khorog that was the focus of this week’s deadly clashes, a military source told AFP. The initial truce was only supposed to last four hours to the early afternoon, but there were no reports of further fighting and the Tajik independent news site Asia Plus said Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon had ordered that the truce would be permanent. The presidency in Dushanbe said it was unable to immediately confirm the reports. According to Asia Plus, the head of the Badakhshan region Kodir Kosim read a message from Rakhmon to inhabitants, saying that the ceasefire would be indefinite to ensure the evacuation of wounded and dead whose bodies risked “decomposing in the streets”.
