Ten-year-old Kobiljon Aliev, who was killed on December 16 at a school in the city of Odintsovo in Russia’s Moscow Region, was buried on December 18 in his home village of Adjam, in Tajikistan’s Shahrinav district, Asia-Plus reported.
The child’s body was brought to Tajikistan on the morning of December 18. Hundreds of people attended the funeral, not only from the Shahrinav district but also from other parts of the country, including many law enforcement officers. Security officials prohibited journalists from openly filming the burial. The funeral prayer was conducted with the participation of Tajikistan’s mufti, Saidmukarram Abdulqodirzoda.
As previously reported, on the morning of December 16 a 15-year-old student of Uspenskaya Secondary School in the village of Gorki-2 arrived at the school armed with a knife and pepper spray. He wounded a security guard and killed a fourth-grade pupil, Kobiljon Aliev. The teenager then barricaded himself in a classroom, taking another student hostage. He was detained by security forces who arrived at the scene and later confessed during questioning.
Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on charges of murder and attempted murder. If a forensic psychiatric examination finds the teenager legally sane, he faces up to 10 years in a juvenile correctional facility.
According to one version of events, the motive for the crime was xenophobic views: before the attack, the teenager reportedly asked students about their nationality and had earlier circulated a “manifesto” among classmates containing aggressive slogans against Jews, Muslims, anti-fascists, and liberals. Another account suggests that his primary target was a mathematics teacher, for whom he allegedly prepared an improvised explosive device.
According to a classmate of Aliev, as the teacher hurried the fourth-grade students into a classroom, Kobiljon said he would distract the armed teenager and ran up the stairs. He stumbled and fell, after which the attacker caught up with him and stabbed him several times.
The boy’s mother worked at the same school as a cleaner and was raising two sons on her own after the death of her husband.
The Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Internal Affairs of Tajikistan, as well as the country’s ombudsperson, called on their Russian counterparts to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the killing of Kobiljon Aliev and to ensure that those responsible are justly punished. The Russian side stated that it is taking all necessary measures to ensure a comprehensive and objective investigation. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had immediately offered assistance to the Tajik Embassy after reports of the killing emerged and subsequently received a formal note requesting an objective investigation of all circumstances of the tragedy. The ministry also expressed its condolences to the Tajik side.
The incident at Uspenskaya School was also discussed by the secretaries of the Security Councils of the two countries, Sergei Shoigu and Yusuf Rahmon.
