27 people sharing ideas of the Jamaat Ansarullah terrorist organization and engaged in recruiting new members for illegal armed formations active in Afghanistan were detained in Russia’s Perm krai on November 18, TASS news agency quoted the press service of the Federal Security Service (FSB)’s office for Perm krai as reporting.
Two of them are nationals of Russia and administrative proceedings have been instituted against them for disobeying police.
The remaining 25 people originating from Central Asia were fined for violation of rules for entering the Russian Federation and they will be deported from Russia, according to TASS.
Recall, 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, the capital of the Tajik northern Sughd province. 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.
Forty-three residents of Sughd province were convicted of membership in Jamaat Ansarullah in April and May last year alone.
Jamaat Ansarullah is the only Tajik-founded terrorist organization. It reportedly emerged in Pakistan in the early 1990s and gradually moved to Afghanistan under commander Amriddin Tabaraov. According to the Tajik law enforcement authorities, Tabarov, also known as Domullo Amriddin, was killed in Afghanistan in December 2015.
