DUSHANBE, February 4, 2015, Asia-Plus – The Directorate for Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan has handed over the leader of Jamaat Ansarullah’s cell in Tajikistan, Qamariddin Ahrorov, and his four associates as well as a Tajik Taliban to the State Committee for Nationals Security of Tajikistan (SCNS), the SCNS deputy head Mansourjon Umarov announced at a regular sitting of the sixth session of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) of the fourth convocation that took place on February 4.
According to him, they were going to commit a number of terrorist acts in Tajikistan.
In a statement delivered at the session, Mansourjon Umarov presented a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Pakistan on setting up a joint working group on the issues of combating international terrorism.
The agreement aims at strengthening cooperation between Tajikistan and Pakistan in providing security in both countries, Tajik senior security officer noted, adding that Pakistan has allocated funds for technical equipment of the Tajik SCNS.
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (more commonly known as just the Inter-Services Intelligence or simply by its initials ISI), is the premier intelligence service of Pakistan, operationally responsible for providing critical national security and intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan. The ISI is the largest of the three intelligence services of Pakistan, the others being the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI).
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 Sughd regional organized crime control department, 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.
In May 2012, Tajikistan’s Supreme Court officially banned Jamaat Ansarullah as extremist on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
