These days grain crops harvesting is in full swing all over the country. For a poor Tajik dekhan each kilogramme of wheat is dear under the conditions of total penury. The majority of industrial outfits have been standing idle for years. As for humanitarian aid rendered by international organizations it doesn't always reach the addresses. In a word a dehkan has no one to hope for but him himself. The only source of his income is the land situated basically on mountainous slopes. Here he sows annually wheat and prays to God for weather, for rain which would water his dry-farming lands. Allah seems to have heard the prayers this year, the yield is very rich this summer. Shurobod dehkans were only to harvest the crop sprouted by their blood and sweat. From mountainous slopes you can pick up on average per 20 centners of grain. But the recurrent affliction precipitated upon local peasants quite unexpectedly. It was the tenth day of the harvest. On August 11 at about eight in the morning two Russian helicopters who were flying from the quarter of Afghanistan suddenly began to cast manoeuvring fire rockets directly on the wheat field. People knowing the peculiar features of militaries were of the opinion that those ones who had dared to do it were in the state of alcoholic intoxication. However it might be, Russian pilots are hardly imaginable to be conscious of the aftermath of their action. The rockets thrown down caused a fire. All this took placed on the arable lands being several hundreds of metres far from Djilga Qishloq. All the inhabitants rushed to extinguish the fire. The most terrible thing was that people remained in the epicenter of the fire. One had to save their lives. The fire embraced tens of hectares.
The peasants understood it was impossible to fight with fire with what they had at their disposal. Some people were managed to have been dragged out of fire. But three men didn't enjoy this luck, they perished. The fourth man is hospitalized in a heavy state. Eleven-years-old-boy Navrusmadi Rajabmad die in fifteen minute after being brought t hospital from heavy burns. In a couple o days one more teenager, thirteen-years-old Gulbutdin Amirov went to his forefathers without having recovered consciousness. In the morning of August 15 doctors reported about the death of Kabir Yormadov, aged 44. Toshmad Abdulloyev, aged 60, has been in the state of shock for several days already.
Quoting chief doctor Kholmurod Rajabov, T. Abdulloyev's body is burnt by 36%. As for material damage, it is counted in millions. The expert of Shurobod reserve Mustafo Boboyev reports the crop on thousands of hectares having been annihilated. The fire which overlapped upon local forests inflicted irremediable harm upon local ecology.
Discussing the action of the Russian militaries local analysts don't exclude provocation aimed at undermining Russian-Tajik military collaboration. At the same time ordinary hooliganism might have taken place, they say. These issues should be contemplated by the experts from the Russian War Procurator's office together with their Tajik colleagues; the formers having arrived to the spot of the event on August 13.