DUSHANBE, August 10, Asia-Plus – Tajik national was arrested in Fayzabad, the capital of Afghan Badakhshan Province on August 6 on suspicion of planning a terrorist act.
“Officers from the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Afghan police arrested him,” Afghan journalist Khoushqadam Osmani told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“Abdul Marouf Rasikh, a spokesman for Badakhshan governor, said that the detainee is national of Tajikistan and he is suspected of membership in Jamaat Ansarullah,” said Osmani. “The spokesman called that man a dangerous terrorist who was planning a terrorist attack on a local official in the province.”
According to Osmani, the detainee told journalists that he left Tajikistan for Iran three years ago and from there he moved to Waziristan in Pakistan, where he was trained at a terrorist camp.
“The detainee said he arrived in Afghanistan for jihad and he was involved in fighting against the Afghan government forces and international coalition forces in the Paktia province. The suspect also said that he was planning to return to Tajikistan and to begin his activities on Tajik territory,” Osmani said.
We will recall that Jamaat Ansarullah, also known as the Society of Allah’s Soldiers, first came to light in September 2010 when the heretofore unknown organization claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on September 3 in Khujand. An explosives-packed car rammed into the building of the organized crime department of the regional police, killing two officers and two civilians and wounding 28 people. The suicide bomber was local resident Akmal Karimov, who was reportedly trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In September 2011, Jamaat Ansarullah issued several videos calling on Tajikistan’s citizens to embrace jihad against “infidels” and urging them to take action to support the implementation of Islamic Sharia law. “Those who pray namaz, who follow fasting rules but support democracy are nonbelievers,” a man on the video said. “Allah is killing nonbelievers by our hands and, thus, blesses us.” Some politicians and experts, however, doubt whether these videos can really be traced back to Jamaat Ansarullah.
