Another soldier’s death in the Tajikistan army

Another serviceman, Solekhjon Soliev, has died during military service in Tajikistan.

The military prosecutor’s office and unit commanders reported a “natural death,” while during the transfer of the body, the military insisted that relatives not remove the shroud and quickly bury the soldier. However, the mother of the deceased, Nargis Pirova, was able to examine the body and found numerous bruises and wounds, including on the head.

According to Solekhjon’s mother, he joined the army in October 2023. By assignment, Solekhjon was placed in a military unit located at the Ayni airbase, a suburb of Dushanbe. The last time his family saw him was on May 2, and just a week later, they were given his body. The military did not inform the relatives of the cause of the soldier’s death.

“His commanders came. I asked: what did he die from? He was healthy. I asked if he had been ill during service. Maybe he had a fight with someone? They answered all my questions: ‘No,'” Nargis Pirova, Solekhjon Soliev’s mother, recounts. “Then I asked: why did he die? They said they didn’t know what he died from.”

“How can you not know? There is a large unit, cameras everywhere. A soldier dies in front of you, and you don’t know? Where are you looking?” the woman cries. “My son was healthy when he went to serve. He joined the army voluntarily, never complained about his health, and didn’t know what injections or pills were.”

Only a month after the soldier’s death did the military prosecutor’s office hand relatives a document stating that the cause of death was a heart attack. After that, the agency closed the investigation into his death.

The relatives of the deceased do not believe what is written in the death report and claim that there were bruises on the soldier’s body—bruises that looked as if he had been severely beaten. They also find it suspicious that the military did not want to allow relatives to examine the body of the deceased.

“I asked to open his face to see him, but I was not allowed to do so. They said they had already washed the body and asked to bury him,” the soldier’s mother recounts. “But I said that until I see him, I will not allow him to be buried. I said: I must make sure that I am burying my child, not some stranger.”

When Nargis removed the shroud from her son’s body, she claims to have seen signs of beating:

“Blood was flowing from the back of his head. There were three wounds on the right side of his back. One was festering, and two looked like those left when beaten with a rifle,” Nargis Pirova emphasizes. “I recorded everything on my phone. I need to tell everyone about this: how they take my healthy son and return a lifeless body.”

Relatives insist on an investigation into the circumstances of Soliev’s death and demand that the authorities find and punish those responsible for his demise. “I hope and ask the president and his son Rustam to intervene and find the murderers of my grandson,” says Tavakkal Solekhova, Solihdjon’s grandmother. “I am 80 years old, and due to his death, I am in unbearable pain.”

Deaths of soldiers in the army in Tajikistan are not a rare occurrence. According to the ombudsman, in 2023, there were 40 recorded deaths among the armed forces of the country, including 8 cases of suicide. Six others died from various illnesses.