DUSHANBE, July 5, 2016, Asia-Plus -- Mirzonazar Fozilov, the son-in-law of Mullo Abdurahim, teacher at the Tajik Islamic University and one of former field commanders of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), who was detained by officers from the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) in May this year, has been released.

We will recall that Mullo Abdurahim (Abdurahim Karimov) told Asia-Plus on May 17 that his son-in-law has been arrested by the SCNS officers in his home in Dushanbe.

“The SCNS officers arrested him on May 16.  I do not know for what reason Mirzonazar was arrested and nobody from our family knows for what reason he was arrested.  My family members just said that the SCNS officers came yesterday and took him with them,” Mullo Abdurahim told Asia-Plus on May 17.     

Meanwhile, quoting unofficial sources, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, locally known as Ozodi, reports that Mirzonazar Fozilov has been arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Salafi movement, which is banned in Tajikistan.

According to unofficial information, Fozilov had friendly relations with the self-declared leader of Salafi group in Tajikistan, Muhammad Rahmatulloh, who was arrested in February this year.  

Mirzonazar Fozilov is graduate of the Islamic Institute of Tajikistan, Tajik National University and the International Islamic University in Islamabad (Pakistan).  He is married to Mullo Abdurahim’s daughter and they have five children.

Mullo Abdurahim (Abdurahim Karimov), one of former field commanders of the Tajik United Opposition (UTO).  At one time, he had held the position of head of the Customs Committee of Tajikistan as part of a power-sharing agreement that had given the opposition 30-percent representation in government.  Later on, he had served as Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Philology at the Tajik Islamic University.  Mullo Abdurahim currently serves as a teacher at the Tajik Islamic University.