DUSHANBE, November 21, 2014, Asia-Plus – Kyrgyz media sources report Tajik national Amrakhon Ergashev was detained by Kyrgyz security forces in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on November 15 on suspicion of being member of the banned religious extremist organization.

The preliminary investigation has reportedly established that Ergashev illegally crossed into Kyrgyzstan through Batken oblast in August 2009 using passport of his immediate relative.

Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry says Amrakhon Ergashev has been an active member of the outlawed religious extremist group Jamaat at-Tabligh.

According to some source, this movement made inroads into Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  As of 2007, it was estimated that 10,000 Jamaat at-Tabligh members could be found in Kyrgyzstan, that was largely driven by Pakistani members initially.

In Tajikistan, 124 followers of Jamaat at-Tabligh were detained in a mosque in Dushanbe in April 2009.  Tajikistan’s Supreme Court banned Jamaat at-Tabligh in March 2006.   

Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry notes that Amrakhon Ergashev is also an active supporter of the Tajik opposition organization Group 24, which was going to hold street protests in Tajikistan on October 10, 2014.

On November 18, 2014, a court in Bishkek made a decision on expelling Amrakhon Ergashev from Kyrgyzstan.

The opposition group called Group 24 was formed by Tajik fugitive businessman Umarali Quvvatov in Moscow 2012.  Quvvatov was arrested in Dubai on December 23, 2012 at the request of Tajik authorities.   He is accused of illegally obtaining about $1.2 million through fraudulent business activities.  Quvvatov denounced the fraud case against him and accused Tajik President Emomali Rahmon of running a “totalitarian regime.”  In an open letter smuggled out of the detention center, Umarali Quvvatov said the accusations leveled against him were “a direct consequence” of his battle against the “oppression of the Tajik people” by Rahmon''s government.  Quvvatov was released from the detention center in Dubai on September 26, 2013 and according to some sources he is currently in Turkey.

Tajikistan''s Supreme Court banned Group 24 on October 9.  The decision followed growing government pressure on the opposition group after it used the Internet to call for street protests in the capital, Dushanbe, on October 10.  Supreme Court judge Salomat Hakimova ruled that Group 24 is “extremist” and therefore is banned in Tajikistan.  Its website and printed materials were also banned.