RFE/RL Correspondents Attacked In Dushanbe While Reporting On Gas Price Hikes

DUSHANBE — Two correspondents from Radio Free Europe/Radio Europe’s Tajik service have been attacked in the capital, Dushanbe, while preparing a report on gasoline price hikes.

Shahlo Abdullo and Mullorajab Yusufi were attacked on March 4 as they interviewed a driver at a gas station.

The journalists said an employee of the gas station approached and demanded they stop the interview. The employee then pushed Abdullo while trying to cover the lens of her video camera.

As Yusufi intervened while filming the incident with his mobile phone, the attacker assaulted him while saying that the journalists had no right to film on the property without written permission from the company.

Yusufi denied they were filming on the company’s land saying they were only talking with several drivers who complained about an abrupt increase in the price of gasoline in the Central Asian nation.

Yusufi was treated by a doctor for minor facial injuries.

Investigators at Dushanbe’s Sino district police department launched a preliminary investigation into the incident after the two journalists filed a complaint.