Dr Boghshoh Lashkarbekov, renowned linguist, anthropologist, has passed away in Moscow

Islamabad, February 2: Dr. Boghsoh Lashkarbekov, a well-known linguist, anthropologist and historian passed away in Moscow, the capital of Russia today. He was the Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Boghshoh was also a human rights activist who fought for democracy and national unity during the civil war. He was working with several other scholars and researchers to develop a script for the Wakhi language, his mother tongue. He hailed from Wakhan, Tajikistan.

Dr. Boghshoh was a highly respected scholar. He visited Pakistan last year and held meetings with cultural activists, researchers and the elders of the Wakhi community in different parts of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Speakers of the Wakhi language across Pakistan and in others parts of the world have expressed shock and sadness at the demise of the revered scholar.

Russian language radio “Ozodi” reports that Dr. Lashkarbekov had a heart surgery which was successful but his lungs failed to work which led to the death of the renowned scholar.

Dr. Boghshoh was born on February 6, 1949 in the village of Langar Ishkashim Badakhshan, reports Ozodi. After the civil war in the 90s, Boghsho moved to Moscow and stayed there till the end of his life. He had devoted his life for promotion of the Pamiri langauge and culture. His last scientific work, reportedly, was about the Wakhi people living in Kashgar, the autonomous Xinjiang region of China.

Pamir Times has the honour of recording an informal talk a couple of years ago in Islamabad in which Dr. Boghsho had shared very important information opinions about the Wakhi language, its future and how it can be saved from extinction. The videos, in Wakhi language, can be watched on Youtube (blocked in Pakistan).

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F82360KM6lE [Part – I]

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iIPaXWj9s4 [Part-II]

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j5v10ADSXM [Part-III]