QURGHON TEPPA, June 5, 2014, Asia-Plus — Three residents of the Bokhtar district in Khatlon are currently fighting on the side of antigovernment forces in Syria.
Representative of the Bokhtar prosecutor’s office stated this yesterday at a meeting of the Coordination Council for overseeing implementation of the RT Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations.”
According to him, local youth are recruited for Syria conflict mainly in the Russian Federation.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Nouraliyev, an aide to the Bokhtar chief prosecutor, noted that 59 residents of Bokhtar have been studying at religious schools abroad since 2011. 54 of them have returned home.
188 mosques now function in the district and 19 of them have not been officially registered, Nouraliyev added.
The Bokhtar chief prosecutor Ibrohim Atovulloyev called on local imam-khatibs to work closely with the population on preventing local youth from joining extremist organizations.
We will recall that in his interview with Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, prominent Tajik cleric Hoji Mirzo Ibronov expressed concern on May 14 that young Tajiks are being brainwashed and recruited to fight alongside Islamist rebels in Syria. He argued that there was no jihad, or holy war, in Syria, despite the claims of those intending to lure Tajik migrants to join the fight.
In his interview, Ibronov expressed concern that recruiters were using propaganda videos, religious sermons, and financial incentives to lure “undereducated” and “impoverished” Tajik migrants in Russia to fight in Syria.
The cleric said the Syrian war was a political and geopolitical conflict, not a jihad, as foreign militants fighting against the regime in Damascus describe it.
According to Tajik authorities, four Tajik nationals have been killed in Syria, and six others have been arrested in Tajikistan upon their return from Syria.
In December 2013, Tajikistan”s Supreme Court sentenced five of the country”s citizens to around two years in jail for fighting on the side of antigovernment forces in Syria. The five were reportedly students at the Syrian International University who decided to join Syrian rebel forces. All five were detained in October when they returned to Tajikistan. Since Tajikistan did not have a law against “mercenaries” that time, the five were charged with “participation in a criminal group or in other armed groups.”
Meanwhile, Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament on May 22 approved an amendment to the Criminal Code stipulating punishment for Tajik nationals taking part in foreign armed conflicts.
According to some media sources, more than 190 Tajik are fighting in Syria on the side of rebel forces.
