News & Comment
Tajik Authorities Created a New Special Service

News

Deputies of the lower house of Tajik parliament approved on the 29th of May amendments to the law “On Military Intelligence of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikistan”, about the creation of intelligence activities inside the country.

Presenting the amendments to the deputies, the First Deputy Minister of Defense of Tajikistan, Emomali Sobirzoda, noted that the military intelligence agencies currently operate in accordance with the current legislation outside the country. But he said, that to struggle terrorism and extremism inside the country there is still no legal basis. “The adoption of the amendments creates a legal basis for creating additional sources of financing military intelligence activities, establishing secret and non-secret intelligence activities ...”, - said the First Deputy Minister of Defense to the deputies.

He explained the necessity of the organization of internal intelligence service by the existence of “sleeping” terrorist cells in Tajikistan. “The rapidly changing situation in the world and the region, the increasing threats of terrorism and extremism, the existence of «sleeping» terrorist cells inside the country, which may adversely affect the country's military security, require that military intelligence be brought in accordance with the requirements of the fight against modern threats”, - he added. (Source: tj.sputniknews.ru)

Comment

It should be remembered that a bit earlier, on the 17th of May, Rakhmon stated in Dushanbe at the conference "International and regional cooperation in the fight against terrorism and its sources of funding ...", that Islamic groups want to seize power in the region. “If we bear in mind our region, then it should be noted that the actions of extremist and radical groups also pose a serious threat to the countries of Central Asia. They disguise their mercenary goals with religious slogans and gather their supporters under the banner of the struggle for social justice. However, in reality, they aim to change the secular structure of the region’s states and use all means and methods to seize political power”, - he said then. (News Asia)

A bit later, on the 21th of May Rakhmon made a new similar statement, now at the ceremony of the 46th meeting of the Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services of the Post-Soviet Countries. “Tajikistan is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and organized transnational criminality and constantly takes practical measures to prevent these devastating threats not only for our own security and stability, but also for other states of the region”, - he said there. (tj.sputniknews.ru)

And it's important, that between these two events, in the night from 19 to 20 of May, over 30 prisoners there were killed in strange circumstances in Vahdat colony No. 3/2 located in the south of Tajikistan. All of them were sentenced for the so-called "religious articles", and among them were well-known opposition leaders. Although the authorities announced it to be a prison riot, people who are informed with the circumstances of life in the colony believe that in the better case the incident was provoked by the administration of the penitentiary system, if not fully imitated, it can be so also.
Thus, public opinion was carefully and in advance prepared for the creation of a new special service under the pretext of ensuring internal security.

It should be noted also that, in fact, Tajik deputies have legalized the already existing total control over each citizen. If before every resident was monitored illegally, then from now to this, action of the authorities is given legitimacy. The real difference is that if earlier the GKNB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan carried out surveillance, now the Tajik authorities decided to create a new department with a huge budget which indicates that the growing so-called the “Islamic threat” worries the regime most of all today.

This decision of the Rakhmon regime is not surprising. Today, throughout the post-Soviet space, we can witness the multiple changes in tactics and strategies of regimes regarding Islamic revival, and these changes for them are necessary measures in response to the rapid change in political reality, the emergence of Muslim peoples' political and religious consciousness, Muslim identity and solidarity.

Allah the Allmighty said:

(إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ لِيَصُدُّوا عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَسَيُنفِقُونَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسْرَةً ثُمَّ يُغْلَبُونَ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِلَى جَهَنَّمَ يُحْشَرُونَ)

“Indeed, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to avert [people] from the way of Allah. So they will spend it; then it will be for them a [source of] regret; then they will be overcome. And those who have disbelieved - unto Hell they will be gathered” [8:36].

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Muhammad Mansour