On the night of September 5 to 6, a brutal murder occurred in the village of Daryoobod in the Rudaki district, shocking all of Tajikistan. 45-year-old Shahlo Nazarova, her two teenage daughters, and her underage son were killed with particular cruelty.
The bodies of the victims were discovered only two days later. The head of the family, Khalim Ibrokhimov, who was working in Russia at the time, was unable to contact his relatives and called neighbors to find out why no one was answering his calls.
Neighbors first found the body of the 12-year-old boy, after which they called the village council chairman and the police. Later, the bodies of the mother and daughters were found.
Only several days after the tragedy, on September 13, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the country reported the arrest of 32-year-old neighbor Saifullo Azimov, who had previously been convicted in Russia for theft, had debts to a bank in Tajikistan, as well as 16-year-old Nuhmon Saidov, Saifullo’s brother-in-law.
However, “Radio Ozodi,” citing two sources, reported that a total of four people were detained. One of them was caught while attempting to flee at the border with Uzbekistan. According to neighbors, even Saifullo’s wife was temporarily detained on suspicion of concealing the crime.
Nuhmon Saidov’s mother denied the accusations against her son. She stated that on the night of the murder, he was at home. When he was called in for questioning at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, she brought him herself.
Neighbors told “Radio Ozodi” that on the night of the crime, Saifullo Azimov, along with a teenager, climbed over the fence and, under the pretext of “hiding from a raid,” meaning military recruitment officers, entered the house. Shahlo Nazarova let them in, but they immediately began rummaging through her belongings in search of money.
At that moment, the woman realized they were looking for money. Fearing that Shahlo recognized him and would report him to the police, Saifullo attacked her. Shahlo then began to cry and plead with Saifullo to take all the money and livestock but not to harm her and the children. However, according to neighbors, Saifullo stabbed the woman twice and threw her body into a ditch in the yard.
After that, the killers lured the 17-year-old daughter, who was watching television with her sister, saying that their mother was calling her. When the girl left the room, they gagged her with a cloth, dragged her into another room, and stabbed her.
Then they called the second daughter, a 15-year-old girl, saying, “Mom is calling you to the kitchen.” When she entered the kitchen, she was raped, then stabbed 15 times and her body was thrown into the tandoor and set on fire.
The 12-year-old boy was suffocated with a plastic bag, strangled, and covered with a blanket.
The killers stole about 23,000 somoni — money from the sale of a cow and transfers from Shahlo Nazarova’s husband from Russia. They then cut off the electricity in the house, carefully destroyed evidence, and fled.
Khalim Ibrokhimov, Shahlo Nazarova’s husband, returned from Russia to Tajikistan after the tragedy. In an interview with Asia-Plus, he stated that his wife was stabbed 17 times, the daughters were killed with a knife and a sledgehammer, and the son was beaten with a sledgehammer and strangled.
According to him, he asked a neighbor to check his house, and she, along with her brother Saifullo, who is now a suspect, went to his home. They saw that the door was nailed shut. They turned on the light, opened the door, entered, and discovered the body of Sharaf, his 12-year-old son, whose mouth and nose were taped shut.
Also, according to the father, his eldest daughter, 16-year-old Habiba, was first struck with a sledgehammer and then stabbed with a knife, after which her body was thrown into a ditch in the yard and covered with grass that was pulled from the garden. His wife, Shahlo Nazarova, was found a little further away, with 17 stab wounds.
14-year-old Hamida was killed in a barn with a knife and a sledgehammer, and her body was placed in a tandoor, covered with straw, and an attempt was made to set it on fire, but the fire did not ignite.
Khalim Ibrohimov also believes that the crime was not committed by two people; there must be more involved. In his opinion, it was a premeditated murder for the purpose of robbery.
He reported that a piece of Saifullo’s skin was found under his wife’s nails, which is important evidence against the neighbor.
Ibrohimov added that the killers knew well where the family kept their money, as Saifullo lived in a house further down the street, the families were closely acquainted, and he knew that the family was saving money to build a new house. Moreover, Saifullo even attended the funerals of the murdered in Faizabad.
The law enforcement agencies of Tajikistan have not yet disclosed the details of the arrest and how the suspects were found, but there are two versions.
According to the first version, after the crime, the authorities gathered all the men in the village over the age of 15 and took DNA samples from them, as one of the murdered girls had been raped. This way, they found the suspect.
The second version is that during the struggle, the woman scratched the criminal, and a piece of his skin remained under her nail. Forensic examination allowed the identification of the suspect.
Neighbors and Khalim Ibrohimov himself confirmed that a piece of skin was found under Shahlo Nazarova’s nails.
Ibrohimov rejected the information about their rape, although he did not see the bodies of his daughters and wife.
According to Radio Ozodi, Shahlo Nazarova’s family moved from the Faizabad district to the village of Daryoobod in the Rudaki district in the early 2000s. Khalim Ibrohimov previously worked at the Rogun Hydroelectric Power Station and then went to earn money in Russia. His wife managed the household, kept livestock, and sold milk.
After the tragic incident, most neighbors left the village out of fear, especially those whose husbands are in Russia. Despite the suspects being found, some families still have not returned to their homes.
