The parents of five young men from Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) told Radio Liberty’s Tajiks Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, on July 1 that the sons had been arrested and are being held in a pretrial detention facility in GBAO's capital, Khorog, on unspecified charges.
The men have reportedly been held incommunicado since Russian authorities detained them and deported them to Tajikistan last month.
The relatives said then that the men, who are from the Yazgulom community in GBAO’s Vanj district, did not arrive at the airport in the southern city of Kulob, where they were expected to be taken from Moscow on June 20.
It remains unclear if the men were deported for violating Russia's migration regulations, or at the request of the Tajik authorities.
Sources close to Tajik law enforcement authorities have told RFE/RL that, since May, at least 15 residents of Yazgulom community had been extradited from Russia to Tajikistan, where they have been charged with “membership in an extremist organization” or “having links with members of an extremist organization.”
Radio Ozodi notes that there has been no official statement on the men's situation.
On May 16, Tajik security forces arrested more than 30 residents of Yazgulom community, accusing them of plotting unspecified acts of sabotage.
Sources told RFE/RL at the time that those arrested were suspected of having links with Jamaat Ansarullah, which is banned in Tajikistan as a terrorist group.
Ansarullah was founded in 2010 by Amriddin Tabarov, who had been a field commander for anti-government Islamist forces during Tajikistan's 1992-97 civil war. Tabarov, also known as Mullah Amriddin, was killed by Afghan government forces in 2015.
Initially, Ansarullah’s members were former Tajik opposition fighters who refused to accept a 1997 peace agreement between the government in Dushanbe and the Islamist-led opposition.
The so-called new generation — children and relatives of the initial members and supporters — have since joined the group.
Since its creation, Ansarullah has had links with other militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban.
