Tolib Ayombekov , a former opposition warlord believed to have been behind the killing of a top security general , surrendered to Tajik authorities early Tuesday , ending a three-week standoff , a government spokesman said . In a statement aired on Badakhshan TV , Ayombekov said he turned himself in to end the violence in Khorog , Pamir -- the capital of the Gorno-Badakshan region in eastern Tajikistan . More than 40 people were killed and many residents were displaced in recent fighting . Also communications with the outside world have been virtually severed during the fighting between Ayombekov 's forces and government troops . The cutoff of cell phone and Internet service began late last month . Aid workers , some of whom had satellite telephones , were evacuated . The government has accused Ayombekov 's fighters in the July killing of Maj. Gen. Abdullo Nazarov , head of the regional branch of the State Committee on National Security , which is a successor to the Soviet KGB . In that incident , a group of unidentified people stopped Nazarov 's car near Khorog , according to Ria-Novosti , a Russian state-run news service . He was pulled from the car , stabbed several times and died en route to a hospital , according to Ria-Novosti . A spokesman for the government in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe said the killing was `` the last straw . '' He said the warlords were troublemakers . In his last public appearance before he went into hiding in late July , Ayombekov told reporters that Nazarov 's security detail had failed to protect him . It was not clear what he meant by that . Ayombekov is the suspected leader of a ring that smuggled tobacco , precious jewels and drugs , the Central Asian News Service said . Until mid July , Ayombekov had been working for Nazarov overseeing border security between Tajikistan and Afghanistan , an administration official in Badakhshan told CNN . The official did not want to be identified because he is not allowed to speak to the news media . Tajikistan gained independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 but has been troubled by a five-year civil war that ended in 1997 as well as widespread corruption and poverty , which continue today . Read more : Clinton discusses human rights , regional security in Tajikistan . Tensions remain high between the Tajik government in Dushanbe and the warlords -- so-called Komandos -- of Gorno-Badakshan , who are members of the Pamiri ethnic minority . The region was a stronghold of rebels during the civil war , which claimed thousands of lives . The war divided people along ethnic and regional lines , and the Pamiri largely sided with the opposition . A United Nations-brokered peace plan in 1997 left President Emomali Rakhmon 's secular government in place but gave some of his opponents , including Ayombekov , official jobs . Rakhmon , who has Moscow 's support , has sought to consolidate power and stamp out remnants of the former opposition-turned-warlords . Khorog residents said they had received no warning of the fighting that began three weeks ago . The official from the Badakhshan administration said residents told him they were not siding with anyone -- they just wanted safe passage out of Pamir .
At least 42 people are killed in fighting . Tensions run high in the area ; ethnic Pamiris have been at odds with the government . The region was a stronghold for Islamist rebels during a bloody civil war . The standoff began in late July .