DUSHANBE, July 19, 2013, Asia-Plus -- Leader of Jamaat Ansarullah, Amriddin Tabarov has been internationally wanted on suspicion of committing a number of serious crimes.

Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimov stated this at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 19.

Amriddin Tabarov, 60, was born in the village of Samsolik, Nourobod district, some 100 kilometers east of Dushanbe.

“During the country’s 1992-1997 civil war, Amriddin Tabarov was one of associates of the leader of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), Said Abdullo Nuri,” Jourakhon Zoirov, the chief of the Interior Minister organized crime control department (UBOP), told Asia-Plus in an interview.

“It was Amrididn Tabarov who organized an attack on frontier post 12 of Russian border troops deployed on the Tajik-Afghan border twenty years ago,” Zoirov said.

According to him, Tabarov did not accept the peace treaty and fled to Afghanistan, where he joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).  “Later, he left IMU and organized Jamaat Ansarullah,” Zoirov added.

We will recall that 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 organized crime department of the regional police, 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.