KHUJAND, March 4, 2015, Asia-Plus -- One more activist of an extremist group, known as Jamaat Ansarullah, has been jailed in the northern province of Sughd.

The Khujand city court sentenced the 45-year-old resident of the city of Istaravshan, R.Yu., to nine years in prison on March 3.         

The man was charged with organizing a criminal group, organizing an extremist group, organizing an extremist activity, and membership in the outlawed religious extremist group, Jamaat Ansarullah.

Ms. Nargis Nabizoda, a judge at the Khujand city court, says R.Yu was arrested by officers from the Interior Ministry’s office for Sughd in St. Petersburg in June last year.

“Investigation has established that the man joined Jamaat Ansarullah in St. Petersburg, where he was engaged in recruiting new members.  He also sponsored active members of Jamaat Ansarullah,” Ms. Nabizoda told Asia-Plus in an interview.

We will recall that the Khujand city court sentenced 13 members of Jamaat Ansarullah, aged 26 to 42, to prison terms between nine and twelve years on February 16.

The sentence reportedly followed their conviction on charges of organizing a criminal group, organizing an extremist group, and illegal weapons possessions. 

Two of them were sentenced to twelve years in jail each and eleven others were sentenced to prisons terms between nine and ten years.  All of them will serve their terms in a high-security penal colony.

As it had been reported earlier, twelve residents of Konibodom and one resident of Istaravshan were detained in November last year on suspicion of membership in Jamaat Ansarullah.  Tajik law enforcement authorities noted that they were suspected of recruiting residents of Sughd province to fight alongside antigovernment forces in Syria.  Two guns and ammunition were reportedly found at the house of the suspected ringleader, Najmiddin Shamsiyev, who is resident of Istaravshan.

The trial began on February 3 and was held behind closed doors in Khujand’s pretrial detention facility # 2.

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 Sughd regional organized crime control department, 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.

In May 2012, Tajikistan’s Supreme Court officially banned Jamaat Ansarullah as extremist on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.  

The deputy head of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Mansur Umarov, told parliament on February 4 that Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had transferred one of the leaders of Jamaat Ansarullah, Tajik national Qamariddin Ahrorov, to Tajik authorities.