DHAKA: Gun battles in and around Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe have killed at least 10 people.

The interior ministry said eight policemen were killed in gun attacks in the town of Vahdat just outside Dushanbe, and at a central interior ministry building, Al Jazeera publishes this report on Saturday.

Officials blamed sacked deputy defense minister Gen Aduhalim Nazarzoda, saying he was leading a ‘terrorist group’.

They also said that two of the attackers were killed.

US embassy said it had closed and warned that the clashes ‘may be precursors to other acts of violence’.

In a statement given to a state-owned news agency, the interior ministry said that early on Friday morning an ‘organized criminal group’ had launched armed attacks on Vahdat’s internal affairs department and on the central government building in Dushanbe.

‘As a result, a large amount of weapons and ammunition were seized and taken away by that terrorist group,’ the statement said.

The statement added that ‘a group of terrorists’ led by Gen Nazarzoda had fled towards the Romit Gorge area and that authorities were searching for him and his accomplices.

BDST: 1250 HRS, SEPT 05, 2015
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