The Final Fortress: How the Pamirs Fell to Tajikistan’s Authoritarian Consolidation

For more than three decades, the Pamir Mountains—remote, rugged, and historically autonomous—stood as the last bastion of organized resistance to Tajikistan’s increasingly authoritarian regime. Long insulated from the reach of central power, the Pamiris preserved their distinct cultural identity and, perhaps more provocatively, their political independence. That resistance, however, placed them on a collision course with a state determined to eliminate dissent at all costs.

Khorog

The rise of President Emomali Rahmon following the dissolution of the Soviet Union ushered in a period of intense internal strife. In the wake of the USSR’s collapse, Tajikistan spiraled into civil war. The conflict pitted the government-backed People’s Front—supported by Russia, Uzbekistan, and other regional actors—against the United Tajik Opposition, an ideologically diverse coalition bolstered primarily by Iran. Regions such as Garm, Yazgulom, Vanj, Darvoz, and Khorog, aligned with the opposition.

International mediation led by the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) produced a peace agreement in the late 1990s, ostensibly ending the civil war. But the détente was short-lived. Once the opposition forces laid down their arms, the Rahmon administration began a slow and deliberate campaign to dismantle them.

What followed was a pattern of repression.

The Pamirs’ resistance was not simply political—it was existential. Unlike other parts of Tajikistan, the region remained beyond the reach of the regime’s patronage networks. This reality reportedly irritated President Rahmon and his inner circle, who viewed the Pamiris' autonomy as a challenge to personal authority.

In 2011, that tension escalated when the Tajik government signed a controversial agreement transferring approximately 1,158 square kilometers of disputed land in Eastern Pamir to China—a territory that comprised 0.77 percent of Tajikistan’s land mass. When local populations learned of the arrangement, they demanded accountability and transparency.

A couple of months after that in 2012, the assassination of Major General Abdullah Nazarov in July 2012, allegedly by associates of a local colonel, gave the regime a pretext. In response, over 3,000 soldiers were deployed to the Gorno-Badakhshan region. Internet and phone lines were cut off. A full-blown military operation was launched in Khorog. Clashes erupted across multiple districts, and what followed was described by witnesses as a siege and a massacre. The government later admitted to the deaths of 41 people—18 of them government personnel and 23 civilians. Though the government's number have be disputed by other international organizations.

In August 2012, security services shot and killed two civilians in their car. Just days later, they executed Imomnazar Imomnazaron, an informal leader of the Pamirs, in his home. Despite this, the region remained unyielding. The government’s provocations became routine. In 2014, security forces violently assaulted residents of Rushan district and opened fire on their vehicle, leaving one man with severe spinal injuries. The public responded with protests. Two more civilians were killed in Khorog, and dozens wounded.

Perhaps the most harrowing episode came on November 25, 2021, with the extrajudicial killing of Gulbiddin Ziyobekov, a civil society activist and celebrated athlete. Security forces tortured him in front of neighbors in the village of Shohdara before executing him with point-blank gunshots. Residents brought his body to the Khorog administration building and demanded justice. The demonstration lasted four days before security forces opened fire on protesters once again, killing two and injuring 17.

Protesters, both within Tajikistan and in exile, called for an end to state violence and adherence to rule of law. In response, civil society formed “Commission 44,” an independent commission to investigate the abuses. It was swiftly dismantled after the events of May 18, 2022—one of the deadliest crackdowns in recent history.

On May 16, a group of youth marched in Khorog, demanding an investigation into the killing of Ziyobekov and others during the previous year’s protests. They called for the resignation of the city’s mayor. Instead, they were met with rubber bullets and tear gas. A 31-year-old protester, Zamir Nazarshoev, was killed.

Two days later, the regime launched what eyewitnesses described as a full-scale terrorist operation against civilians. Helicopters, tanks, and machine guns were used against unarmed residents in Rushan district. The military siege continued for a month. By mid-June, mass executions had taken place, hundreds were detained, particullary 40 killed in Rushan district.

The fall of the Pamirs has marked the final consolidation of power for the Rahmon regime. It was the last region in Tajikistan that had not submitted and stood for its rights and freedom—and it paid dearly for that defiance. For 30 years, the Pamiris resisted the central government’s authority.