Two high-ranking officials have been arrested in Uzbekistan: the former first deputy head of the Tashkent City Police Department, Doniyor Tashkhodjaev and former head of the internal security department of the Presidential State Security Service, Shukhrat Rasulov. While, dozens of security service employees have been sacked.

Doniyor Tashkhodjaev, who previously held the position of first deputy head of the Tashkent City Police Department, had overseen the investigation of several high-profile criminal cases, including the case of the renowned blogger Abdukodir Muminov.

Abdukodir Muminov, 34, is known in Uzbekistan as one of the fervent critics of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. He ran the popular YouTube channel Ko’zgu, which had 247 thousand subscribers.

On December 23, 2022, Abdukodir Muminov was attacked by unknown individuals, who brutally beat him and damaged his car, smashing the windows with a baseball bat. In February 2023, he was arrested on charges of fraud and extortion, and in August of the same year, the court sentenced him to 7 years in prison.

The blogger's mother claimed that from the very beginning of the investigation, her son was allegedly tortured by a group of officers of the Tashkent City Police Department, one of whose senior officials was the aforementioned Doniyor Tashkhodjaev.

“They forced him to crawl on the floor, constantly kicked him in the ribs and hit him in the genitals. Due to the torture, he repeatedly lost consciousness, but he was brought to his senses and again subjected to cruel abuse,” Abdullaeva said, citing her son.

Doniyor Tashkhodjaev, who after the arrest of Abdukodir Muminov claimed that the blogger's case was not political in nature, himself became a defendant in a high-profile criminal case.

The colonel Tashkhodjaev is accused of covering up the crimes of businessman Javlon Yunusov, whom law enforcement officials consider to be the key link between the perpetrators and the alleged customers of the assassination attempt on former employee of the Presidential Administration Komil Allamjonov. The assassination attempt on Komil Allamjonov took place on October 26 this year in Tashkent region.

Doniyor Tashkhodjaev was detained on December 3, a week after being dismissed from his position. Previously, he held various high-ranking positions: he worked in the Tashkent region police department, headed the Fergana region police department, served as the deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and deputy head of the Tashkent City Police Department. In August last year, Tashkhodjaev returned to the Tashkent City Police Department to the position of first deputy head.

Another high-ranking former official - Shukhrat Rasulov was detained on November 26 as part of the investigation into the assassination attempt on the former employee of the Presidential Administration of Uzbekistan. Shukhrat Rasulov headed the Internal Security Department of the Presidential State Security Service in 2018-2020.

According to sources, Rasulov was allegedly Otabek Umarov's "right hand" in the influential "office", and is also the alleged organizer of the assassination attempt on Komil Allamjonov.

40-year-old Shukhrat Rasulov, known by the nicknames "Zhiguli" and "Kolobok", is said to have played a key role in the investigation and trials in 2019 against the former head of the State Security Service, Ikhtiyor Abdullaev, as well as former prosecutors general Rashid Kadyrov and Otabek Murodov, who were sentenced to long terms for serious crimes.

Reports are circulating online that journalists have allegedly received a copy of a document called "Action Plan", which contained information about how Uzbek special service officers, through the so-called "office", threatened, blackmailed and exerted unprecedented pressure on representatives of the Uzbek media.