The commander of Tajikistan’s special forces, Gulmurod Khalimov, has announced that he has joined the Islamic State (IS) in a video published online.
Khalimov, who is shown dressed in black and holding a AK47, says he joined IS in protest of Tajikistan’s “anti-Islamic” policies.
In the film clip, which is believed to have been recorded at an IS camp in Syria, the US-trained military commander warns that he plans to return to Tajikistan to “bring slaughter” and retribution for the state’s belittlement of Islamic beliefs.
The video will come as a shock to Tajikistan’s authoritarian leaders, who have struggled to quell the Islamist threat in the east of the country over the last five years.
Khalimov was working for the Tajik regime as recently as April, where he led forces to fight against the sort of extremism often portrayed by the group he has now joined.
The Tajik authorities soon blocked YouTube and other video sharing sites after the clip appeared online in an attempt to prevent the news spreading amongst the country’s population.
Up to 500 Tajik militants are reported to have joined IS, with a number seen in videos of the recent IS military successes in taking Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria.
