On the sidelines of the CIS interior ministers’ meeting that took place in the Azeri capital of Baku on July 19-20, Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimov held talks with IINTERPOL Secretary General Jurgen Stock, according to the Tajik Interior Ministry’s website.  

They reportedly discussed issues related to cooperation between Tajikistan and INTERPOL in searching for internationally wanted persons.

According to the data from the Interior Ministry of Tajikistan, 2,528 nationals of Tajikistan have been put on the international wanted list.  They are suspected of committing grave crimes in Tajikistan such as murders, armed robberies, terrorism, extremism, etc.

1,870 of those people, including 35 members of the outlawed Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), are suspected of being members of terrorist and extremist organizations, the Tajik Interior Ministry’s website says.

Meanwhile, Azeri media reports say heads and senior representatives of interior ministries of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, the Russian Federation, CIS Executive Committee and the CIS Office for Coordination of the Fight against Organized Crime and Other Dangerous Types of Crimes, as well as International Criminal Police Organization - INTERPOL, the UN’s Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre for Combating Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs participated in the 5th meeting of the CIS Council of Interior Ministers.

In his opening remarks, Chairman of the CIS Council of Interior Ministers also Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan, Ramazon Rakhimzoda, reportedly highlighted the work carried out by the Council within the year.

The meeting saw chairmanship of the Council pass to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The participants discussed some important issues such as the progress in the implementation of interstate crime control programs, as well as a number of other topical areas of cooperation of the CIS MIA (police), including the exchange of information regarding persons participating in armed conflicts as part of terrorist and (or) international terrorist organizations in the territories of third countries; improvement of the mechanism of coordinated actions of the CIS internal affairs bodies to counter new types of crimes committed in the territory of the Commonwealth countries in the field of modern information technologies.  

The next meeting of the Council will be held in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.

INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 192 member countries.  Its role is to enable police around the world to work together to make the world a safer place. INTERPOL’s high-tech infrastructure of technical and operational support helps meet the growing challenges of fighting crime in the 21st century.

Recall, the General Assembly of INTERPOL voted in Mexico on 5 October, 2004 to accept Tajikistan as the organization's 182nd member state.

The IINTERPOL National Central Bureau for Tajikistan is a sub-division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  Staffed by nearly 20 officials, it is the essential link between Tajik national law enforcement and Interpol’s international law enforcement community, serving as the contact point for all Interpol investigations relating to Tajikistan or requiring action from Tajik police forces.