In mid-May, the Tajik authorities escalated their offensive against the people of Gorno-Badakhshan, a province encompassing the eastern half of the country.
By the time they finished, the relationship between this rugged mountainous region on the border with Afghanistan and the Tajikistan government in the capital, Dushanbe, seemed to have fractured beyond repair.
The offensive started with the murder of a man I knew well, Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov, known locally as Colonel Boqir.
