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Tajikistan detains eight in drugs raid - agency

Wed May 28, 2008 12:30pm EDT
DUSHANBE, May 28 (Reuters) - Police in Tajikistan have detained eight suspected members of a Tajik-Afghan drugs ring after a 12-hour siege in which three people were killed, a Tajik news agency said on Wednesday.

Asia-Plus news agency said two of those detained on Tuesday were relatives of late warlords who took part in a 1990s civil war in the 1990s and helped bring President Imomali Rakhmon to power in the former Soviet republic bordering Afghanistan.

Drug crimes are frequent in Tajikistan, which lies on a trafficking route from Afghanistan to western Europe.

Police began the siege on a house in the town of Kulyab, about 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Dushanbe, because they suspected the owner of possessing 100 kg of heroin.

Stray bullets killed two civilian bystanders and an officer from Tajikistan's state security committee was also killed, Asia-Plus said. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Timothy Heritage)


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