It’s a year since Muzaffar Davlatmirov, a respected religious leader in the Gorno-Badakhshan region in Tajikistan, witnessed Tajik state forces brutalise his community as part of a long-running attempt to suppress the area’s religion, culture and anti-government protests.
Now, the 59-year-old Ismaili khalifa (cleric) from the regional capital, Khorog, is in prison, as are hundreds of other locals.
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), a mountainous and sparsely populated region covering the eastern half of Tajikistan, is home to the Pamiris, a minority ethnic group that follows the Ismaili branch of Shi’a Islam, who the central authorities have long distrusted.
