Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Eco-police officers in Uzbekistan’s Kashkadarya Region have been attacked by people accused of violating environmental laws, the press service of the Committee for Ecology and Climate Change said.
Pre-investigation checks are being conducted into both incidents.
On 11 September, Bahrom Toshpulatov, head of the G‘uzor district department of the Kashkadarya regional ecology and climate change directorate, was taken unconscious to the regional scientific emergency medical centre.
According to preliminary information, he was attacked during a raid to stop illegal extraction of sand and gravel from the Kashkadarya River in the Kovchin mahalla of G‘uzor district. A citizen who found him took the officer to hospital, where he is receiving medical treatment.
The other incident occurred overnight on 6–7 September in the Arab village of Kovchin mahalla. During a control raid, Eco-Police inspectors identified illegal extraction of sand and gravel in the water-protection zone of the Kashkadarya River.
The officers stopped the violation and began taking the machinery to an impound lot. According to the Ecology Committee, the alleged offenders actively resisted. Kia K5 vehicles without registration plates, along with a Lacetti and a Cobalt, blocked the road, after which one of the inspectors sustained bodily injuries.
The offenders also drove away machinery that Eco-Police officers were taking to the impound lot.
Pre-investigation checks are being conducted into both incidents.
