SUMMARY
PFT (People’s Front of Tajikistan) was a collection of Tajik warlord-led armed groups primarily composed of members of the Kulyabi clan and the relatively large Uzbek minority. The group was involved in the conflicts that erupted in Tajikistan in 1992. It should be noted that while PFT was officially formed on 6 October 1992, UCDP used this label even prior to this. The reason for this was that the poor quality of the reporting from the conflict made it impossible to code the activities of what would become PFT’s constituent parties separately. As such, all militias - that would later join PFT – active outside the capital Dushanbe from June until 6 October were still coded as PFT. As such, PFT was first involved in a non-state conflict against UTO, which lasted June to September 1992. When UTO took full control over the capital Dushanbe and government power on 7 September 1992, PFT proceeded to fight against the Government of Tajikistan. PFT’s primary goal was – at least nominally – to prevent the creation of an “Islamic state” in Tajikistan, and to facilitate the return of a secular, authoritarian government.
PFT was created following the merger of several Kulyabi militias on 6 October 1992; PFT’s most prominent constituent factions were a militia led by Sangak Safarov, and the “People’s Front of Tajikistan – Hissor” (PFT-H). Safarov was a notorious crime boss and local strongman from Tajikistan’s Kulob district who briefly led a government-loyal force known as the “National Guard” (gurdan-i jumhuri, or sometimes called “Headquarters of the National Guard”/HNG). Tajik President Rahmon Nabiyev set up the National Guard in May 1992 to protect himself against mass protests orchestrated by the political opposition (see UTO) based among the Gharmi and Pamiri clans in Dushanbe. When an alliance of 13 Gharmi gangs (called the “Youths of Dushanbe City”, YDC) decided to join the unrest against the government in May 1992, President Nabiyev established the 1800-strong National Guard to protect the government, as there were no functioning Tajik security forces at the time. As Nabiyev’s own Leninabadi/Khujand clan did not have any fighters present near Dushanbe, the president turned to Safarov to organize and lead the National Guard. In order to bolster the pro-Nabiyev forces in Dushanbe, Safarov facilitated the transportation of many Kulyabis to the capital; President Nabiyev then provided Safarov’s men with weapons. Safarov’s forces thus served as a “de facto” government armed force in early May 1992. However, following clashes with opposition forces, Safarov and his loyal militiamen – which most likely did not include the entire National Guard - severed its ties to the Tajik government and left Dushanbe on 12 May . After this, Safarov’s militia began operating as an independent non-state group in the Khatlon province, particularly the Kulob district.
PFT-H, for its part, was officially formed on 6 September 1992 to fill the void left by the collapse of civil authorities in Hissor, a town and district in western Tajikistan; its leader Safarali Kenjaev was a former Chairman of the Supreme Soviet (the highest legislative body) of Tajikistan. Kenjaev had also been involved in the May clashes in Dushanbe, before leaving the city at some point during the late spring to organize his own militia. Kenjaev was also the driving force behind PFT’s formation in October. Parallel to the formation of Safarov’s and Kenjaev’s militias, several smaller Kulyabi and Uzbek militias and “local defense groups” emerged during the spring and summer of 1992, particularly in the Khatlon province; prominent commanders of these groups included Langari Langariev, Fayzali Saidov, and Rustam Abdurahimov. Given the lack of details available on the fighting factions in Tajikistan in 1992, fighting taking place outside the capital Dushanbe – such as the fierce fighting in Qurghonteppa - after 12 May was attributed to the PFT non-state actor. While many would-be PFT groups were “pro-Nabiyev” – at least in the sense that they were opposed to UTO – it was simply not possible for the UCDP to establish whether the Government of Tajikistan had any direct control over these forces. Several other Kulyabi and Uzbek paramilitary and militia groups also joined PFT after 6 October 1992.
While Safarali Kenjaev was the driving force behind the formal creation of PFT, the group was commanded by Sangak Safarov. Prior to 6 October 1992, the various factions coded by the UCDP as “PFT” had been led by their respective warlord. In 1992, it was estimated that the various militias and groups comprising the PFT fielded between 5000 and 10 000 fighters. Many PFT members and leaders had intimate connections to organized criminal activity; for example, Safarov was a career criminal who had spent 23 years in prison.
In the beginning of the conflict, PFT lacked access to heavy military equipment and the organizational ability necessary to achieve decisive victory. However, in November 1992 Russia and Uzbekistan decided to provide support to PFT, which allowed it to develop into a capable force with a unified chain of command. The Uzbek government for example provided considerable support to the PFT warlord Safarali Kenjaev, who operated in the Hissor area. Russian Special Forces and officers from the 201st Motor Rifle Division also partook, without direct orders from Moscow, in PFT attacks against UTO forces. Hundreds of fighters belonging to the Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, also fought alongside PFT forces.
During the early phase of the conflict in Tajikistan (1992-1993) the divide between the different warring parties could at an aggregated level be drawn between the Leninabadi/Khujand and Kulyabi clans supported by the Uzbek minority on one side, and the Gharmi and Pamiri clans on the other. PFT’s decision to first fight against - and then side with – the Tajik government could thus be partly explained by these clan-based rivalries. PFT, which was mainly comprised of Kulyabi and Uzbek fighters, fought against the Government of Tajikistan when it was controlled by the Gharmi/Pamiri-dominated UTO. After 18 November 1992, President Emomali Rakhmonov - a member of the Kulyabi clan from Leninabad - led the Tajik government. In fact, PFT warlords, including Safarov himself, had been central to Rakhmonov’s rise to power (for more on this, see the Government of Tajikistan actor page). With a Kulyabi in power, PFT chose to side with the Government of Tajikistan, becoming its de facto armed forces; PFT thus ceases to exist as an independent actor in UCDP data after 18 November 1992.
