KHUJAND, July 16, 2015, Asia-Plus -- In a report released at a news conference in Khujand, Sughd police department chief Sharif Nazarzoda revealed on July 15 that 90 residents of Sughd province are fighting alongside Islamic State (IS) militant group in Syria. 

“Twenty-three of them have traveled to Syria with their wives and 37 underage children,” Nazarzoda noted.      

According to him, criminal proceedings have been instituted against 57 of them under the provisions of Article 401’ of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – illegal participation in foreign armed conflicts    

Tajikistan’s Penal Code defines a mercenary as a specially recruited person who acts with a view to receive a remuneration and who is neither a national of a State party to the conflict nor its permanent resident, nor a member of the armed forces of a party which is in a state of war and is not sent by any other State on official duty as a member of its armed forces.