Bakhtiyor Kurmonmadov died on April 19, five days after signing up to join the army.

His relatives said that there were bruises all over Kurmonmadov’s body. This was contested by an official report which said he died from a heart attack during an exercise.

To many, Kurmonmadov’s death was an indication of just how institutionalised bullying is in the Tajik army.

The system of informal beatings and bullying of young recruits by more senior soldiers even has a name, ‘dedovshina’ which literally means ‘grandfatherism’.

It’s a system that is spread across the armies of the former Soviet Union. A handful of recruits are killed or badly injured every year.

Last month, another conscript in Kurmonmadov’s unit was taken to hospital after a severe beating from older soldiers.

Amridin is a 24-year-old graduate,who was conscripted into the Tajik army two-years-ago. He described to a Conway Bulletin correspondent how he ended up in the army and severity of his treatment there.

“I was literally kidnapped in the streets and sent to the army. When we were new recruits, older soldiers beat, tortured, and harassed us in whatever way they wanted,” he said. “You cannot avoid getting beaten up because beating new conscripts is like an unwritten rule in the army.”

He coughed and complained about his health. He said that some of his colleagues had been beaten so badly that they would now be no use on a battlefield.

“If it continues in this way, we cannot defend our country if an enemy attacks us,” he said.