Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, locally known as Radio Ozodi, reported on January 6 that at least 27 people were arrested in Tajikistan over the past week on suspicion of membership in the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.
They were reportedly arrested in Sughd and Khatlon provinces and in the city of Dushanbe. Ozodi says that according to some sources, those taken into custody include university teachers and a head of one of jamoats.
Citing one of sources, Ozodi says that head of the Isfara state-owned property management department, Firdavs Rahimzoda, is among the dozens of detainees. .
Three months ago, Rahimzoda was reportedly acting head of office of Isfara mayor. Prior to this, he had served as head of the Chorkuh jamoat, which is subordinate to the city of Isfara.
The Muslim Brotherhood, a politically engaged and conservative Islamic group founded in Egypt in the 1920s, was banned in Tajikistan in 2006.
