“Raid” on the groom right on the wedding day

A video has surfaced showing military enlistment office employees detaining a groom right in the wedding car, next to the bride and taking him to the enlistment office.

Social media users reported that the incident occurred on November 2 in the Mirsaidali Hamadoni area of the Khatlon region. The groom was taken into the army on his wedding day while he was returning from the bride’s house and was about to enter the groom’s house.

It is reported that after her son was taken during the “raid,” the groom’s mother suffered a heart attack, and her health condition is assessed as serious.

So far, there has been no official information about the details of the incident. However, this is not the first case where enlistment office employees burst into citizens’ homes and forcibly take young people to the enlistment office for military service.

Meanwhile, on October 2, state media reported that in nine districts of the Khatlon region, the “recruitment plan was fully completed.” In particular, the districts of Farhor, Hovalin, Levakant, Khuroson, Dangara, Mu’minobod, Dusti, the city of Bokhtar, the city of Nurek, as well as the rural jamoats of Vorukh and Chorkuh in the city of Isfara in the Sughd region had already completed the recruitment plan by 100% on the second day.

It should be noted that the autumn draft for the Armed Forces of Tajikistan started on October 1 and will last until November 30 of this year. Young people born between 1998 and 2007 are being called up for service.

Authorities claim that the reason for the rapid completion of the recruitment plan for military service is due to the “large number of volunteers,” “improvement of the national army’s reputation among the population,” as well as a number of promised government benefits, including obtaining driver’s licenses.

However, eyewitness accounts of the recruitment process show that enlistment office employees detain young people of conscription age on the streets and in public places, as well as at their residences, during a campaign known among the people as a “raid,” and forcibly send them to the army.

Recently, the authorities of Tajikistan have devised even more sophisticated methods of “raids.” In particular, government officials and enlistment office employees are forcing the heads of mahallas and mosque imams to bring young people of conscription age and send them to serve in the army; otherwise, the authorities threaten to close the mosques.

In some villages in remote areas, enlistment office employees have come to the homes of conscripts and, not finding the young men themselves, took their relatives or parents with them until the conscript appeared.

Experts note that the main reason for young people’s evasion of military service in Tajikistan is the harsh treatment of recruits by soldiers, known as “dedovshchina.” As a result of brutal beatings and abuse, young people die in the army every year.

Every year during the conscription campaign, young people of draft age and their families face difficulties. Employees of the military enlistment offices conduct “raids” — detaining young people right on the streets, in public places, and even in front of universities, forcibly sending them to the army.

In recent years, defense ministers have unexpectedly acknowledged the existence of these problems and called on military enlistment office staff and law enforcement agencies not to violate the law during the autumn draft.

However, experts believe that without radical reforms in the Ministry of Defense, these problems cannot be resolved by mere orders and directives.