Rights groups blast Tajikistan

ALMATY, Kazakhstan: Rights groups on Tuesday accused ex-Soviet Tajikistan of cruelty after security services hauled a 10-year-old girl off a plane as she was set to visit her opposition activist mother.

Activist Shabnam Khudoydodova told AFP that security service officials forced her daughter, mother and brother off a plane on Saturday as they were heading to visit her in Poland. "They told them they were categorically banned from leaving the country. Then they detained them for eight hours," Khudoydodova, who has been granted political asylum in Poland, told AFP by telephone.

"Before that, they had been allowed to pass passport control and board the plane," Khudoydodova said.

Rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee on Tuesday signed a letter calling on the Tajik government to allow Khudoydodova’s family to reunite. "They should be allowed to leave Tajikistan immediately without any fear of retribution."