KHUJAND, October 20, 2014, Asia-Plus -- More than 90 residents of the Tajik northern Sughd province are reportedly wanted by police on suspicion of being involved in terrorism and extremism.

“More than 90 residents of Sughd are currently wanted by police for membership in terrorist groups and movements as well as membership in parties and movements that are banned in Tajikistan,” an official source at the Interior Ministry’s office in Sughd told Asia-Plus in an interview.

According to him, more than 120 local residents have been arrested over the past four years for membership in terrorist an extremist organizations.

We will recall that the Sughd chief prosecutor’s office has instituted criminal proceedings against the 36-year-old woman from Sughd province, Sh.M., who is an active member of the outlawed Jamaat Ansarullah group.  She is currently fighting alongside antigovernment groups in Afghanistan.

Besides, Sughd law enforcement authorities have recently detained 10 local residents who were trying to leave the country to join jihadists in Syria.  Nine of them are residents of the Spitamen district and one is resident of the Panjakent district.  All of them are ethnic Uzbeks aged 20 to 30.

International experts say that hundreds of Islamist fighters have traveled from Central Asia to Syria to swell the ranks of Islamic State militants.  Many are recruited while working as migrant laborers in Russia.