Unrest Topples Leadership in Soviet Asian Republic : Ethnic strife: Muslim extremists mob a bus and attack girls with uncovered heads.

Massive unrest in the Tadzhikistan capital of Dushanbe toppled the leadership of the entire Central Asian republic Thursday, and the deputy prime minister turned against the government to head a “provisional people’s committee.”

In the first reported outburst of Islamic fundamentalism in the mainly Sunni Muslim republic, extremists mobbed a bus and attacked Tadzhik girls because their heads were uncovered, Radio Moscow’s Interfax news service said.

The official Tass news agency said seven people were killed and 40 wounded in the last 24 hours in clashes between Tadzhik militants and self-defense units formed by other residents of Dushanbe, a city of 316,000 people with a variety of ethnic groups. The city is 95 miles north of the Afghan border in Central Asia.

There was no clear casualty toll from the four days of violence. Tass quoted the Soviet Interior Ministry as saying 18 people were killed and 200 wounded. Interfax, citing unofficial sources, reported 25 dead. Soviet television earlier had said 37 had died, a total that Thursday appeared to be questionable.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, facing the second Muslim insurrection on his vast country’s southern rim in less than a month, vowed Wednesday to squash the instigators of violence in Dushanbe.

The upheaval in Dushanbe erupted Monday with pogroms directed against Armenian refugees from last month’s ethnic violence in Azerbaijan.

Tass said 8,000 people rallied outside the Tadzhik Communist Party headquarters and a smaller number gathered at the government building to demand the resignation of republic and local leaders.

Tadzhik Communist Party boss Kakhar Makhkamov, Prime Minister Izatullo Khayeyev and President Gaibnazar Palleyev submitted their resignations, but there were no immediate replacements, the Izvestia government newspaper said.

The leadership void widened when Deputy Prime Minister Buri Karimov jumped ship and took over the helm of “Unity,” a “provisional people’s committee.”