[CONFLICT] Islamic Insurgency in Gorno-Badakhshan

Following the attacks against the government troops on the border, the Tajikistani government decided the best course of action was to bolster troops in Gorno-Badakhshan to intimidate the Islamic Revivalist party and crushing any support they had in the region. As such they deployed 6,000 troops, half of the professional army and another 2,000 Tajik Internal Troops mostly drawn from clans loyal to the government. The government expected something relatively similar to the 2010-1012 insurgency in the region and expected the massive size of the army to crush the insurgents and push them back into Afghanistan. However instead the Islamist rebels, believed to number at somewhere around 12,000 and now calling themselves the Islamic Revivalist army, armed with weapons purchased with Saudi money and bolster with veteran members from the Taliban and Al-qaeda, put up fierce resistance against the army. They took to the hills and mountains of the Gorno-Badakhshan region and fought a long protracted insurgency. The insurgents took to launching attacks against, convoys, army patrols and isolated military positions. The mountainous terrain of Gorno-Badakhshan is similar to that of Afghanistan's and the support of the Pamiri people helped them to avoid government detection. The government found themselves in a position similar to how the first civil war started and they are less well equipped than they were during that war, rather than fear a return to that period of unrest they instead decided to take desperate measures against the terrorists. They began what has been described by Human Rights watch as an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Pamiri people. Claiming that they were collaborating with the terrorists the government began a wholesale campaign of terror against them burning down villages they claim harbored terrorists and executing men they claimed to be members of the Islamic revivalist army. The campaign has driven the Islamic Revivalist army further into the hills however it has also caused an uptick in pro-Islamist feelings in the area further swelling the ranks of the Islamic Revivalist Army.

Government losses- 860 killed, 97 desertions

Islamist losses- 1,190 killed,

Civilians losses- 2,230 killed, Human rights watch declares the government to be engaged in Ethnic cleansing