Over the first six months of this year, Tajik law enforcement authorities have prevented twelve terrorist acts in the country, the Interior Minister, Ramazon Rahimzoda, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 21.
According to him, a large amount of explosives, mobile phones and weapons have been confiscated from persons masterminding those terrorist acts.
The minister, however, did not give specific examples of any of those possible terrorist acts.
“Over the report period, 228 Tajik nationals have been detained for involvement in terrorist organizations. 104 of them had contacts with the Islamic State (IS) terror group, 80 people had contacts with Salafi Group, 17 others had contacts with Jamaat Ansarallah, 16 people had contacts with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and three other people had contacts with the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT),” Rahimzoda noted.
“This year, thirteen Tajik nationals have voluntarily returned from Syria where they were fighting alongside Islamic State militants. In accordance with the country’s legislation, all of them have been exempted from criminal responsibility,” the minister said.
According to him, 17 organized crime groups have been broken up in the country over the same six-month period.
