Parents of a Tajik mercenary who joined the Islamic State (IS) terror group have applied to the Tajik authorities asking for returning their son from Afghanistan.
Parents of the 18-year-old resident of Kulob Shodijon Boyev are asking the Tajik authorities for returning their son from Afghanistan, Kulob chef prosecutor Khoushvakht Mashrabzoda told reporters in Kulob on January 26.
Currently, Shodijon Boyev is reportedly in one of IS training camps in Afghan Nangarhar province.
Mashrabzoda said criminal proceedings had been instituted against Shodijon Boyev under the provisions of Article 401 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – mercenary activity.
“We found out that since 2016 Shodijon Boyev had been in Russia. Last year, he left for Turkey and then traveled to Iran. In December last year, using a fake passport Boyev left for Afghanistan,” the prosecutor said.
Shodjon’s mother, Firouza Marahimova, says her son has been in Afghanistan. During a short telephone conversation Shodijon reportedly told her that IS emissaries had torn up his Tajik passport and helped him cross into Afghanistan. “For the last time, he phoned us from Jalalabad. He said that he repents sincerely of what he done but he does not know how to return home. Shodijon asked for saving him,” Firouza Marahimova said.
Meanwhile, the report of the Government of Tajikistan, submitted to UN refugee agency, reported that there were 234 families or about 840 people from Tajikistan in the conflict zones. 309 among them were men, 279 women, 110 girls and 142 boys. Over the past two years, the Tajik authorities have been able to evacuate 19 families or 61 people from the war zones, including 21 girls and 20 boys.
