OMON The Special Purpose Mobile Unit () or
OMON is a
special police unit of the VKD, originally created as the
special forces of the Soviet
Militsiya. The
civil war in the country in the 90s was considered to have been caused by the local OMON defecting to anti-
Rahmon Nabiyev protesters in May 1992. A significant portion of the OMON at the time consisted exclusively of the minority
Pamiri people. In February 2008, OMON commander Lieutenant Colonel
Oleg Zakharchenko was killed in a shootout with a police unit composed of former opposition fighters in
Gharm. Colonel
Gulmurod Khalimov, the former head of the Tajik OMON, made headlines in 2015 when he then defected to the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Military Band The Band of the Ministry of Internal Affairs existed even before the
collapse of the Soviet Union, under the direction of Senior Lieutenant Oleg Nazarov. After Tajikistan gained independence in 1991, a military formal
military band was established under the leadership of Lieutenant Rusht Rushtov and the participation of local soldiers from military unit 6593. It was one of the first military band of the independent state or be founded. In 1994, when
Turkish President Süleyman Demirel visited Dushanbe, a group from the band held an official welcome ceremony with the performance of the Turkish military march. Since 1991, the band has sported around 8 to 45 people, with ethnicities ranging from
Russians to
Tatars to
Uzbeks. In February 2010, the former Interior Minister Abduhahim Kuharov awarded the entire band with the anniversary award in honor of the 85th anniversary of the Tajik Militia. == Police oath ==