Several media outlets reported yesterday that 6,000 militants of the Islamic State (IS) terror group have gathered at the Afghan-Tajik border. Is it true?
Thus, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, local known as Radio Ozodi, reports that commander of Tajik border troops, Colonel-General Rajabali Rahmonali, allegedly said that yesterday in Dushanbe, while delivering a statement at the 4th regional meeting of chiefs of border services of Central Asia’s nations, Russia and Afghanistan.
Radio Ozodi notes that Rahmonali stated about concentration of more than 6,000 foreign militants in northern provinces of Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan – Badakhshan, Kunduz and Takhar.
According to him, 16,770 militants, including 6,370 foreign mercenaries, have gathered in those border areas.
“They have created 36 terrorist training camps. Mostly, they are militants of Taliban movement, Ansarullah, the Islamic Movement of Turkestan and the Islamic State terror group,” Rajabali Rahmonali was cited as saying by Radio Ozodi.
According to Radio Ozodi, Aburahim Qahhorov, the head of the Security Council of Tajikistan, also delivered a statement at the meeting and noted that the Islamic State terror group has continued recruiting young Tajiks.
He reportedly noted that more than 1,000 Tajiks had joined the Islamic State terror group.
Meanwhile, the Main Border Guard Directorate under the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Tajikistan neither confirms nor denies these reports.
