Sherali Mirzo

Lieutenant General Sherali Mirzo (Tajik:Шералӣ Мирзо born May 24, 1967) is the current Minister of Defense of Tajikistan. He held this office since November 20, 2013, succeeding Sherali Khayrulloyev.

Biography
Mirzo was born in 1967 in the Moskovskiy district (present day Hamadoni) in the Khatlon Region in the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic.He graduated from the Perm High Military Command Academy and armed forces after independence in 1994 (Faraj, November 22). During the Tajik civil war, he commanded the troops of the Vose' District. He spent four years studying at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia. From 2005–2006, he served as Tajikistan’s deputy minister of defense before being moving to the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) which succeeded the KGB of the Tajik SSR. On October 3, 2013 by order of a presidential decree he was appointed Minister of Defense by President Emomali Rahmon. He succeeded Sherali Khayrulloyev who resigned as Minister of Defense due to "health reasons".