President claims attacks on police carried out by Islamic State loyalists

Tajikistan's leader said on Sunday that attacks on police were staged by militants sharing the views of Islamic State and aiming to undermine rule in the Muslim nation, local media reported.

Nine policemen were killed in gun attacks on Friday in the capital of Dushanbe and the nearby city of Vahdat, police said.

Police said the insurgents, led by a sacked deputy defense minister, General Abdukhalim Nazarzoda, then fled to a gorge, where they were surrounded by security forces.

During a two-day operation, 17 rebels were killed, including four insurgents in Ramit Gorge on Sunday evening, the Interior Ministry said. Several rebels were detained and a large quantity of arms seized, it added.

In Vahdat on Sunday, President Imomali Rakhmon told residents the attacks had been carried out by "terrorists with evil consciences to destabilize the situation," local media reported. The rebels "pursued the same goals as Islamic State," he was quoted as saying.

The attacks came amid rising tension between Rakhmon's pro-Moscow secular government and the Islamist opposition.

The violence has raised fears of a return to unrest in the Central Asian nation that has remained volatile since a 1992-97 civil war between the Moscow-backed government and Islamist insurgents in which tens of thousands died.

More than 500 Tajiks have joined Islamic State fighters, according to police estimates. Rakhmon said nearly 50 came from Vahdat and 11 had been killed in Syria and Iraq.

Police said on Sunday they had arrested a group of army officers, both in active service and retired, as well as several civilians in Dushanbe and a nearby village who had aided Nazarzoda, local media reported.

Nazarzoda was brought into the Tajik armed forces under a deal to end the civil war. Under the agreement the United Tajik Opposition, which had fought against Rakhmon, was entitled to 30 percent of posts in government departments.

Rakhmon, in power since 1992, has recently stepped up pressure on the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, the country's only legal Islamist political group.

(China Daily 09/08/2015 page11)