Over the first nine months of this year, 68 abandoned Tajik students abandoned their studies at religious schools abroad and returned home, according to the Interior Ministry’s website.
However, 29 Tajik students are still illegally studying at foreign religious schools, the website says.
Meanwhile, 163 Tajik nationals who were fighting alongside militants of terrorist groups abroad and were supporters of the banned radical groups such as Salafi movement, Jamaat Ansarullah and Group 24 have voluntarily returned to Tajikistan over the same nine-month period, the website added.
Recall, Tajik authorities launched a campaign to return young people from foreign madrasahs in 2010.
Hundreds of Tajik students have been forced to quit their studies at religious schools in Iran and Pakistan and returned home. The return of the Tajik students from Muslim countries began in August-September 2010 after President Emomali Rahmon said students at illegal Islamic schools too often “fall under the influence of extremists.” In August 2010, President Emomali Rahmon warned that foreign religious schools are indoctrinating Tajik students with radical Islamist ideology, and urged parents of madrasah students to bring them home.
