(Dushanbe, TJK) - At least 12 people were injured when Tajik football fans clashed and wreaked havoc in the southeast of the country following a match, Tajikistan's interior ministry said on Wednesday.
"Twelve people were wounded, and 20 more of the most active hooligans have been detained," ministry spokesman Makhmadullo Asadulloyev told AFP after the disturbances in the town of Kulyab following a match Tuesday evening between local team Ravshan and Istiklol, a team from capital Dushanbe.
Fans of the two clubs "clashed in fist fights" after the local team lost 1-0 to Istiklol, where Rustami Emomali, the eldest son of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, plays as a striker. It was not clear if he was involved in this game.
Ravshan fans threw "rocks, bricks, and plastic benches" from the seats after they considered the winning goal to be scored from offside.
"Police forces used tear gas as well as stun grenades," said Asadulloyev. "Hundreds of fans threw rocks at the guests' expensive cars, breaking several windows."
Police ended up escorting the visitors back to Dushanbe, about 200 kilometers away.
The clash between football fans was the first of its kind in Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, is a mostly mountainous nation of seven million people on the border with Afghanistan and western China.
