DUSHANBE, August 6, 2013, Asia-Plus – Asror Bulbulov, the head of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP)’s organization for Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) has said that Tajik society does not need a religious party.

He was shown on state television on August 5.  Bulbulov noted that some residents of the region had allegedly been put on the list of members of IRP’s organization for GBAO without their knowledge.

According to him, information about the number of members of the IRP in the region has never corresponded to the facts.  “I just know that only 37 persons in our region are members of the Islamic Revival Party, but not 2,700 as the party leadership states,” the head of the IRP organization for Khorog said.

“We officially announce shutdown of the Islamic Revival Party in Gorno Badakhshan.  Such a political party is not needed in Tajikistan,” Bulbulov stressed.

Meanwhile, representatives from IRP’s headquarters in Dushanbe say Bulbulov has made that statement under pressure from the country’s security service.  “Bulbulov told his relatives recently that the fate of former head of the IRP organization for Khorog, Sherik Karamkhudoyev, may befall him,” the source said.

We will recall that the Supreme Court sentenced Sherik Karamkhudoyev to 14 years in prison on May 10.  He was found guilty of founding an organized criminal group, organizing mass disorders, and illegal weapons possession.

Karamkhudoyev, 46, was arrested in July last year during a military operation carried out by government forces in Khorog.  Karamkhudoyev denied taking part in the fighting, and his party called his arrest politically motivated.

Founded in October 1990, the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan was registered on December 4, 1991.  It was banned by the Supreme Court in June 1993 and legalized in August 1999.  Its official newspaper is Najot (Salvation).  According to some sources, IRP now has some 50,000 members.  It won two seats in the 2010 parliamentary elections.  The Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan is the only Islamic party registered in CIS Central Asia.