Tajikistan authorities should promptly and impartially investigate the deaths in custody of five ethnic Pamiri activists during 2025, Human Rights Watch said today.
The deaths highlight grave concerns about the Tajik authorities' treatment of ethnic Pamiris, a historically persecuted cultural, religious, and linguistic minority. All five men had been detained following the government's violent crackdown on protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in May 2022. Some died after being denied medical care. Information about one of the men, who died in February, became public only in late August 2025.
"The deaths of five Pamiri prisoners within months of each other raise serious questions about the treatment of political prisoners and conditions in Tajikistan's detention facilities," said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should immediately and transparently investigate these deaths and provide clear explanations to their families."
The five prisoners who died were Kulmamad Pallaev, 50, a civic activist from Rushan in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, who died in January; Bogsho Imatshoev, 67, a Pamiri supporter of the banned opposition party Group 24, who died in February; Aslan Gulobov, 35, a civic activist from Khorog, who died in June; Muzaffar Davlatmirov, 61, an Ismaili cleric from Khorog, who was ostensibly imprisoned for leading funerals following the May 2022 crackdown, who died in June; and Eronsho Mamadrahimov, 39, who died in July.
The media and the Pamiri community reported that the authorities denied the prisoners adequate medical care, which contributed to their deaths. Imatshоev's health deteriorated rapidly on January 26 due to a spike in blood pressure. Despite his and other prisoners' urgent requests for emergency medical assistance, an ambulance allegedly arrived only four hours later. He suffered a stroke and remained in a coma for about a month, then died at a regional hospital.
Media reported that Pallaev died from undetermined health complications related to his stomach. When he requested medical assistance, prison authorities allegedly recommended that he "tolerate the pain."
The authorities appear to have arrested Mamadrahimov to pressure his brother, the well-known Pamiri activist Mehron Mamadrahimov, to return to Tajikistan. The media reported that Eronsho Mamdrahimov died following prolonged torture and ill-treatment.
The United Nations Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary, and Summary Executions call for the "thorough, prompt and impartial investigation" of all suspicious deaths in custody to "determine the cause, manner and time of death, the person responsible, and any pattern or practice which may have brought about that death." The principles state that "families of the deceased and their legal representatives shall be informed of, and have access to, any hearing as well as to all information relevant to the investigation, and shall be entitled to present other evidence."
The government security forces' crackdown in Khorog and Rushan in May 2022 resulted in the deaths of up to 40 people, and the detention and torture of more than 200 protesters and local people, who were prosecuted behind closed doors. There has been no accountability for the crackdown, which authorities called an "anti-terrorism operation."
At least six civil society activists defending Pamiri rights remain imprisoned. They include Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, a 67-year-old independent journalist and civil rights activist sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges of conspiring against the state and organizing the protests, and Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov, director of the Lawyers Association of Pamir, sentenced to 16 years on charges of participation in a criminal organization.
Since the protests, Pamiris have reportedly been prohibited from speaking their languages in public and from hosting prayer meetings in their homes. At a high-level UN meeting in 2023, Tajikistan's justice minister, Muzaffar Ashuriyon, denied that the Pamiris are a distinct ethnic minority. Hundreds of nongovernmental groups in the region and the country have been forced to close.
In March 2025, President Emomali Rahmon granted amnesty to 897 prisoners, but none of the arbitrarily detained Pamiris were included despite repeated international appeals. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for the immediate release of several Pamiri detainees, determining their detention to be arbitrary.
Human rights organizations have documented systematic torture of Pamiri activists in detention, with prisoners reportedly forced to confess to fabricated charges or implicate fellow activists living abroad. The abuse appears to serve both as retaliation for past activism and as part of broader discrimination based on their faith, language, and culture. In its 2024 country report on human rights practices in Tajikistan, the United States Department of State noted that "reports of abuse and mistreatment of prisoners continued, and a culture of impunity and corruption weakened investigations and prosecutions."
The international response to the human rights crisis in Tajikistan has been relatively muted, Human Rights Watch said. The issue largely fell off the agenda of Tajikistan's international partners after the European Union issued appeals for investigations into abuses and despite similar calls by the European Parliament and the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor. Human rights monitors have warned of signs of security and counterterrorism cooperation between certain EU member countries and Türkiye with Tajikistan that could facilitate further acts of transnational repression.
"The systematic repression of the Pamiri people needs to end immediately," Sultanalieva said. "The Tajik government should unconditionally release all arbitrarily detained Pamiris, stop all torture and denial of medical care, and restore their cultural and linguistic rights. Concerned governments should not remain silent in the face of these terrible human rights abuses."
