Tajikistan

The Central Asian nation of Tajikistan is majority Muslim, but its government has launched a crackdown against Islamic headscarves.

Russians are reportedly growing exasperated with Muslim migrants praying in public places, while the Muslims say they need more mosques.

Trial under tight security for 19 defendants accused of involvement in last year´s shooting rampage in a Moscow concert hall that killed 149.

City officials in St. Petersburg, Russia, announced on Thursday that the city’s closed-circuit TV (CCTV) surveillance cameras will be upgraded with “ethnic recognition software” to “prevent social tension” by monitoring “the formation of ethnic enclaves.”

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Patrick Lechleitner says “it’s quite common” for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to have “no information” on migrants that are subsequently released into the United States from the southern border.

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin claimed on Tuesday that a warning from U.S. intelligence about the March 22 terrorist attack in Moscow was ignored because it was “too vague.”

The Iranian government said on Thursday it has already arrested 35 people in connection with the deadly bombing on January 3 in Kerman, the hometown of terrorist mastermind Gen. Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but an international manhunt for more suspects is underway.

Several suspected Islamist terrorists have been arrested in Germany and Austria over alleged plots on the Cologne Cathedral and elsewhere.

Russia is settings its sights further east to man the front lines, with Tajik and Uzbeki recruits enticed with signing bonuses and high pay.

China’s state-run Global Times on Thursday warned the United States could “spark World War III” by pushing too hard to decouple from the Chinese minerals industry by developing its own supply.

A migrant man who attempted to throw a large stone at a Swedish police officer has become the first person convicted following the multi-day riots over Easter across Sweden in reaction to the burning of copies of the Islamic Qur’an.

The Taliban held a military parade for its “Islamic Emirate Army” in the city of Kandahar on Monday, featuring U.S.-made weapons, armored fighting vehicles, and helicopters seized after President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Lawmakers in Tajikistan announced on Wednesday that China would build a new military base on the nation’s border with Afghanistan worth $10 million.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded “effective financial humanitarian support” from the international community for the brutal Taliban regime in remarks on Wednesday.

Afghanistan’s power supply may be cut off in the coming weeks if the Taliban fails to pay outstanding electricity bills due to the country’s main energy providers in Central Asia, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

U.S. Gen. Mark Milley allegedly asked his Russian counterpart last week to clarify an earlier offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the U.S. to use Russian military bases in Central Asia to monitor emerging security threats from Afghanistan, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday, citing unnamed U.S. government officials.

China and Tajikistan completed a two-day joint military drill in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on Thursday designed to test the two nations’ anti-terrorism preparedness along their respective land borders with Afghanistan, the state-run China Daily reported.

The Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan for the former government of President Ashraf Ghani said Wednesday that he is seeking help from Interpol to arrest the ex-head of state over the embezzlement of tens of millions of dollars.

The Russian embassy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, claimed on Monday that former President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter stuffed with cash.

President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday following the arrival of Taliban forces to the nation’s capital, Kabul, Afghan outlet Tolo News reported.

Acting Finance Minister Khalid Payenda on Wednesday resigned his position with the government of Afghanistan and fled the country after the brutal Taliban insurgency gained control of vital border crossings and captured three more provincial capitals, bringing its total to nine.

China and Russia began joint military drills in the former’s northwestern region on Monday amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and renewed efforts by both to become more relevant players there.

Tajikistan held the largest military exercise in its history on Thursday, drilling its entire 100,000-strong army plus 130,000 reservists as instability grows in its southern neighbor Afghanistan. 20,000 of those reserves have been deployed to reinforce the Afghan border.

Russian envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov warned on Tuesday that if the Taliban is not welcomed into Afghan politics and given enough influence to satisfy its leaders, “their takeover of the country will become a very real prospect.”

President Joe Biden said Afghans who aided America and their families may relocate to American facilities outside the continental U.S.

Tajikistan asked the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) — a Russian-led military alliance of former Soviet republics — for help in securing its border with Afghanistan on Wednesday citing advances by the Taliban terror group following a Western troop withdrawal from Kabul.

President Biden is racing to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans awaiting U.S. visas for aiding the American war effort.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin told his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rahmon, on Tuesday that Russia would offer his country “necessary support” in the face of a growing threat of Taliban attacks on the nation’s border with Afghanistan.

Dozens of women in Feroz Koh, capital city of Afghanistan’s central Ghor province, took up arms and marched on Sunday to show their defiance against the advancing Taliban.

The government of Tajikistan confirmed Monday that over 1,000 members of the Afghan military had crossed the border fleeing Taliban attacks in the north of the country, ceding critical Afghan territory to the jihadist group.

German prosecutors said Monday they have charged five Tajik men with being members of the Islamic State group, accusing them of participating in a cell of the extremist organization in Germany.

Police have arrested a migrant from Tajikistan, wanted for being a member of Islamic State, who had been living in Greece for three years in a house given to him by an NGO.

Polish authorities have arrested four men for allegedly trying recruiting Muslim converts in order for them to commit ISIS terrorist attacks.

BERLIN — German authorities say police have arrested four suspected members of the Islamic State group alleged to be planning an attack on American military facilities.

An idealistic Millennial couple who bicycled through the wilds of Muslim central Asia in the belief that “humans are kind” and that “evil is a make-believe concept” have been murdered by Islamic terrorists.

Two Americans were killed on Sunday in a jihadist attack claimed by the Islamic State in Tajikistan, the country’s interior minister confirmed on Monday.