Mohammad Sadiq Tariq
The recent terrorist activities in the country and the region prove that the Khorasan branch of ISIS in Central Asia has had a clear involvement in all terrorist attacks and activities.
It must be acknowledged that Tajik nationals have gained significant influence within this takfiri group.
Afghan authorities, recognizing the gravity of this issue, have repeatedly emphasized that Tajikistan, a poor country with limited resources in Central Asia, should no longer bear the burden and should not become a haven or a conduit for ISIS.
In this brief article, I aim to elucidate the influence of Tajiks within this group. It must be admitted that the citizens of Tajikistan have not recently been attracted by the heinous phenomenon of ISIS; rather, they have been aligning themselves with ISIS for years.
Mashreq Information News Service reports on the recruitment of Tajik nationals to ISIS in 2015 and 2016: Official statistics indicate that over 2,000 Tajiks traveled to Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2016, with 80% of them worked as migrant laborers in Russia.
Some of these individuals even went to Syria and Iraq with their families, resulting in the deaths of approximately 500 Tajiks, leaving their wives and children missing.
In addition to the presence of Tajiks as regular members of ISIS, they also sometimes fulfill the role of assassins.
In this regard, Andriy Sirenko, an expert in Central Asian political issues, wrote on his Facebook page a few years ago: «Promotional videos of recent battles conducted by the ISIS terrorist group in Mosul, Iraq, reveal that Gulmurod Khalimov, the former commander of the police special forces of Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, is leading the forces of this terrorist group.
Moreover, this Tajik officer established a 400-person unit of special snipers in October 2016 upon the orders of ISIS leaders, utilizing these individuals as a fundamental defensive element.
The 41-year-old Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, formerly the commander of Tajikistan’s police special forces within the Interior Ministry, who was wanted by both his country and Interpol, disappeared at the end of April 2015. Shortly thereafter, he announced through a video clip on social media that he had joined ISIS.
Having held a pivotal and significant position within Tajikistan’s special forces, Khalimov succeeded in misleading a vast majority of Tajiks through his extensive propaganda and capturing them in the clutches of ISIS Khorasan Branch.
Regrettably, today these same Tajiks, who have been recruited by certain members of ISIS, are being utilized to destabilize Afghanistan and other countries in the region.
Note: Our focus is solely on those Tajiks who actively participate within the ranks of ISIS.
