Tajik Official Is Fatally Shot

Culture Minister Abdurakhim Rakhimov was shot dead by an unidentified gunman early saturday, and a senior security official said the killing was an act of terror meant to undermine the country’s fragile peace.

A police spokesman said the assailant shot Rakhimov, 49, as he was leaving his house in the western district of Dushanbe, the capital. The minister died instantly and the assassin, armed with a pistol, escaped.

The reasons for the slaying were unclear, the spokesman said.

But a high-ranking official from the Security Ministry said the killing, committed on the eve of the country’s Independence Day, was a “provocation” aimed at defying the authorities and undermining the country’s shaky peace.

“Bearing in mind that the assassination took place right on the eve of festivities, we have the right to assume that it was aimed at destabilizing the political situation in the country before the independence anniversary,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

Rakhimov was the third senior Tajik official to be assassinated this year. Deputy Interior Minister Khabib Sanginov was killed in April in a daylight machine-gun attack, and presidential advisor Karim Yuldashev died in July.

Despite the obvious security concerns, President Emamali Rakhmonov made no mention of guerrilla violence in a lengthy speech on independence that lasted 1 1/2 hours and was broadcast live on television.

The president, who was once wounded in an assassination attempt, based his speech mainly on Tajikistan’s “progress towards democracy” and economic growth.

Tajikistan, a former Soviet state ravaged by a 1992-97 civil war in which tens of thousands died, celebrates the 10th anniversary of its independence today. Rakhimov had been in charge of preparations for the national holiday.