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Tajikistan convicts 170 extremists, terror suspects in 2011 – prosecutor

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Tajikistan detained some 200 members of extremist and terrorist organizations in 2011 and secured convictions against about 170 of them, the country’s first deputy prosecutor general, Abdukodir Muhamadiyev, said on Tuesday.

Tajikistan detained some 200 members of extremist and terrorist organizations in 2011 and secured convictions against about 170 of them, the country’s first deputy prosecutor general, Abdukodir Muhamadiyev, said on Tuesday.

Among those detained, 86 people are members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), 17 are members of the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, and four others are involved in the activities of the Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat, Muhamadiyev told journalists. The latter group, which many analysts have described as being purely “missionary” in nature, not political, was declared extremist in Tajikistan in 2006.

Muhamadiyev did not give details on the rest of the detainees.

“It’s difficult to say to what extent the involvement of suspected militants in these organizations has been proven, but it’s clear that preventive work has long been carried out in Tajikistan to halt the activities of all [radical Islamist] organizations,” said Vitaly Naumkin, a Russian expert in Oriental Studies.

Muhamadiyev said a total of 168 suspected extremists and terrorists detained in 2011 have been convicted. Among them are 53 members of the IMU, who have been sentenced to prison terms of between 12 and 23 years for taking part in operations in the Rasht Valley region in 2010 and early 2011, he said.

Tajik security forces carried out a series of anti-terrorism raids in the region following a militant ambush in September 2010 that killed 28 government troops. The IMU, which has operated in Tajikistan since the early 1990s, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Rasht Valley region has been a stronghold of Islamist militants fighting the government of President Emomali Rakhmon.

“It’s difficult to say to what extent the involvement of suspected militants in these organizations has been proven, but it’s clear that preventive work has long been carried out in Tajikistan to halt the activities of all [radical] organizations,” Vitaly Naumkin, a Russian expert in Oriental Studies, said.

Tajikistan, which shares a poorly-protected 1,300km (800 mile) border with Afghanistan, is the poorest of the states to emerge from the Soviet collapse in 1991.

 

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