CIS DOSAAF shooting championship starts in northern Tajikistan

KHUJAND, September 20, 2011, Asia-Plus -- A shooting championship among the CIS societies of assistance to defense began in Khujand, the capital of the northern Sughd province today.

Sharif Azizov, the head of the sports department within the Central Committee of the Society of Assistance to Defense of the Republic of Tajikistan, has told Asia-Plus that the competition, involving 47 representatives from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia, runs till September 25.  “The teams are competing in shooting from small-bore rifles and pistols,” Azizov said.

DOSAAF was a paramilitary society in the Soviet Union, Voluntary Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet.  The society was preserved in a number of post-Soviet republics.  The name is changed n some of them; in Tajikistan the counterpart is “Society of Assistance to Defense of the Republic of Tajikistan.”  In Russia in December, 1991 it was reformed into the Russian Defence Sports-Technical Organization (ROSTO).  In December 2009, ROSTO was renamed DOSAAF Russia.  

Society of Assistance to Defense of the Republic of Tajikistan is dedicated to promote development of paramilitary sports in the country.