DUSHANBE, May 28, 2015, Asia-Plus — Asia-Plus’ website several other news websites as well as YouTube and a number of other news websites and a number of Russian social networks have been inaccessible in Tajikistan since May 28.
Vavilon, TajikTelecom, Megafon and a number of other Internet providers blocked access to Asia-Plus’ website yesterday evening.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik- and Russian-language websites, a video-sharing website YouTube, and Russian social networks Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki have also been inaccessible in Tajikistan since May 28.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Tajikistan”s Association of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Asomuddin Atoyev, has supposed that access to the sites was being blocked by some ISPs following an oral order from the state communications service agency.
According to him, reports about the Tajik OMON (special police unit) commander who joined Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Syria could be behind the order.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported yesterday that officials at the state communications service agency said they have nothing to do with the Internet blockage.
We will recall that in a video posted on YouTube on May 27, the Tajik OMON commander Gulmurod Halimov said he had joined the ISIL group in protest at official restrictions on religious observance in Tajikistan.
