DUSHANBE, August 4, 2016, Asia-Plus – Two activists of Sodiqlar extremist group have been detained in northern Tajikistan.

Members of this group have been detained in Tajikistan for the first time.  “Sodiqlar” is the Uzbek plural form of the Arabic word “sadiq” that means “honest”, “truehearted”, “sincere”, “faithful”, “devoted”.

A source at one of Tajik law enforcement authorities says this organization is an affiliate of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

According to him, two residents of Sughd’s Bobojonghafourov district – a 36-year-old I.Sh. and a 30-year-old A.A. – have been arrested by officers of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office in Sughd on suspicion of being members of Sodiqlar extremist group.

They reportedly joined that extremist organization in 2014.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against then under the provisions of Article 307’ (3) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – organizing activity of an extremist group, participation in activity of the banned political, public or religious organizations; an investigation is under way.      

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a militant Islamist group formed in 1998 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley.  Its original objective was to overthrow President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, and to create an Islamic state under Sharia; however, in subsequent years, it reinvented itself as an ally of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.