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The leader of the world's Ismaili community, the Aga Khan, has been welcomed by thousands of his followers at the start of a visit to the Pamir mountains of eastern Tajikistan.

On his arrival at the region's only airport, the Aga Khan was given the traditional welcome -- he was offered salt and bread.

Later in the region's capital, Khorog, schoolchildren waved flowers and chanted songs in his honour.

The Ismaili community like other groups in Tajikistan has been severely affected by the civil war which followed independence.

The leader of the world's Ismaili community, the Aga Khan -- who's visiting Tajikistan -- has addressed a crowd of more than eighty-thousand followers in the Pamir mountains.

It's only the second time that the Aga Khan has visited Tajikistan and many people slept overnight in the mountain valley ready for his arrival.

In a speech the Aga Khan called on Muslims to stop fighting each other and said that his greatest wish was for peace.

The people of the Pamirs are cut off from the rest of the world for months on end

An ambitious project is underway in the remote region of the Pamir mountains to help the mountain people fend for themselves.

For decades the mountain range, which is described by the Tajiks as "the roof of the world", was dependent on Moscow for survival.

But when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Aga Khan foundation stepped in to fill the gap. It is now trying to teach the people self-sufficiency.

The leader of the world's Ismaili community, the Aga Khan, has been welcomed by thousands of his followers at the start of a visit to the Pamir mountains of eastern Tajikistan.

On his arrival at the region's only airport, the Aga Khan was given the traditional welcome -- he was offered salt and bread.

Later in the region's capital, Khorog, schoolchildren waved flowers and chanted songs in his honour.

The Ismaili community like other groups in Tajikistan has been severely affected by the civil war which followed independence.

The spiritual leader of
the world Ishmaelites, Prince Aga Khan IV, who is paying a week-
long visit to Tajikistan at the invitation of President emomali
Rakhmonov, on Thursday left for the Gorno-Badakhshan
autonomous region where the most populous diaspora of
Ishmaelites resides.

The spiritual leader of the murids, the followers of the "living
God," or crown prince Aga Khan IV, is accompanied on the
Badakhshan journey, just as during his visit to Tajikistan in May