Tajik authorities expect insurgents to lay down arms until noon Saturday
DUSHANBE. July 27 (Interfax) - The Tajik authorities have given the leaders of illegal armed units in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region until noon Saturday, July 28, to lay down their arms and surrender, a source familiar with the situation in the negotiations between the parties told Interfax on Friday.
The source said earlier on Friday that the warlords had accepted one of the two demands put forward by the authorities, namely that they voluntarily lay down their arms, but the process has still not been started. "We expected that the surrender of weapons would start today, but this has still not happened for reasons unknown to us," he said.
"Now we have given them until noon tomorrow so that they will finally start giving up their weapons," he said.
Negotiations on Friday continued, as the parties have still not reached an agreement on the second demand, namely that the insurgents turn in four people suspected of killing Abdullo Nazarov, a general of Tajik special services, on July 21.
