Almaty pays last tribute to legendary Kara Major

ALMATY. KAZINFORM Almaty residents have paid last tribute to the legendary Kara Major, well-known veteran of the Afghan War, colonel Boris Kerimbayev, who passed away February 12, at the age of 72, Kazinform correspondent reports.

The farewell ceremony was held in Almaty-based Army House.

Hundreds of people including family members and relatives of Kara Major, veterans of the Afghan War, Great Patriotic War, military servicemen, local executives and residents of the city, gathered in the Army House to pay last tribute to Boris Kerimbayev.

Boris Kerimbayev retired from military service in 1992 for health reasons. In recent years he underwent treatment at a military hospital. Minister of Defense Nurlan Yermekbayev visited him a few days before his death and congratulated him on the 30th anniversary of withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and awarded him with Altyn Uki badge of honour and a letter of gratitude for his merits for the military intelligence service.

In Afghanistan, Boris Kerimbayev served as a commander of the 177th separate special forces squadron and carried out a number of successful operations. One of them was controlling Panjshir ravine for almost a year during which he was nicknamed as Kara Major (Dangerous Major) by his Muslim Battalion which consisted of Kazakh, Tajik, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz soldiers.

Boris Kerimbayev was born 12 January 1948 in Prudki village of Dzhambul municipality in Almaty region. Upon finishing the local secondary school in 1966 he was admitted to Tashkent-based V.I.Lenin Higher Command College. After graduation in 1970, he was sent to Germany for a service as a commander of a motorized rifle platoon.

In 1973 he was appointed a commander of a reconnaissance troop. In 1975, he was sent to the Red Banner Central Asian Military Unit as a reconnaissance troop commander. In 1977, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff and later as a commander of a motorized rifle battalion at the military unit No.52857 in Temirtau. In January 1981, Boris Kerimbayev was appointed a commander of the 177th special forces squadron established on the ground of the 22nd separate special mission brigade. Namely this appointment became a turning point in Boris Kerimbayev's life.

The 177th Special Forces Squadron was known for carrying out the most dangerous and most responsible operations. Renamed in 1984 as the Gazniyskiy Motorized Rifle Battalion, it fought in the most troubled areas of Afghanistan: Salang Pass, Jellalabad, Kabul and Bagram. In 1989, the troop was among the last to leave Afghanistan.