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Tajikistan Editor Beaten

08 February 2011 02:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. An opposition newspaper editor in Tajikistan has been severely beaten by unknown assailants, APA reports quoting â€œThe Voice of Americaâ€.
A senior official of the Islamic Revival Party says Khikmatullo Saifullozoda was attacked by a group of assailants in the capital Dushanbe Monday. The editor of the Nachot newspaper has been hospitalized in grave condition.
The Islamic Revival Party won two seats in last year’s parliamentary elections.
Human rights activists say President Emomali Rakhmon rules Tajikistan with an iron fist and has tried to silence dissent.
Tajikistan is a majority Muslim Central Asian nation and the poorest state to emerge from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The eastern region has seen an active Islamist insurgency since Tajikistan’s civil war of the 1990’s.
Tajik officials say Taliban and al-Qaida militants have been trying to enter Tajikistan from northern Afghanistan to flee operations by NATO-led forces.