Islamic Party Leader In Tajikistan Pelted With Eggs, Tomatoes

The chairman of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (HNIT), Muhiddin Kabiri, was pelted with eggs and tomatoes on a visit to the southern city of Kulob.

The leader of the HNIT branch in Kulob, Muhammadsharif Nabizoda, told RFE/RL that unknown protesters assaulted Kabiri in Kulob after he had arrived to meet with locals on June 10.

Kabiri was holding the meeting on private property after local tax authorities closed the HNIT's office in Kulob on June 9.

In April, HNIT's deputy chairman, Saidumar Husaini, his son, and a member of the party's supreme council were beaten by a group of unknown men in the eastern province of Gorno-Badakhshan.

The HNIT is the only Islamic party in post-Soviet Central Asia that is officially registered and represented in a parliament.