KHUJAND, April 1, 2015, Asia-Plus -- Tajikistan is trying 23 men it says are members of a banned Islamic group Jamaat Ansarullah the government has classified as extremist.

The Khujand city court in the northern province of Sughd reportedly began hearings on March 31.

An official source at the Khujand city court says the trial is being held at Khujand pretrial detention center # 2.

The suspects, who are residents of the districts of  Istaravshan, Konibodom, Spitamen and Bobojonghafourov, were reportedly arrested last year and they face charges of organizing a criminal group and organizing an extremist group.

Tajik law enforcement authorities say Jamaat Ansarullah is a branch of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and financed by Al-Qaeda, an international terrorist network.

We will recall that the Khujand city court last month convicted 13 local men of being members of Jamaat Ansarullah and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 9 to 12 years.

Jamaat Ansarullah, also known as the Society of Allah’s Soldiers, first came to light in September 2010 when the heretofore unknown organization claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on September 3 in Khujand.  An explosives-packed car rammed into the building of the Sughd regional organized crime control department, killing two officers and two civilians and wounding 28 people.  The suicide bomber was local resident Akmal Karimov, who was reportedly trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In September 2011, Jamaat Ansarullah issued several videos calling on Tajikistan’s citizens to embrace jihad against “infidels” and urging them to take action to support the implementation of Islamic Sharia law.  “Those who pray namaz, who follow fasting rules but support democracy are nonbelievers,” a man on the video said. “Allah is killing nonbelievers by our hands and, thus, blesses us.”  Some politicians and experts, however, doubt whether these videos can really be traced back to Jamaat Ansarullah.

In May 2012, Tajikistan’s Supreme Court officially banned Jamaat Ansarullah as extremist on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.  

The deputy head of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Mansour Umarov, told parliament on February 4 that Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had transferred one of the leaders of Jamaat Ansarullah, Tajik national Qamariddin Ahrorov, to Tajik authorities.