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Terrorist movement militant sentenced to 12 years in Tajik prison

Tajikistan-born 24-year-old militant Azamat Elmirzoyev was arrested last summer when he crossed the state border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan

DUSHANBE, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — A militant from the terrorist organization Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a court of Pyandzh, a city in southern Tajikistan, the deputy head of the state committee for national security, Mansurdzhon Umarov, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

Tajikistan-born 24-year-old militant Azamat Elmirzoyev was arrested last summer when he crossed the state border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Staying in Afghanistan in 2010-2011 Elmirzoyev fought alongside the Taliban against NATO’s forces. Later in Pakistan he underwent a special training in a terrorist camp joining the combat wing of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

In summer 2012 the militant was sent to his homeland of Pendzhikent to create a terrorist unit, but was detained by Tajik border guards.

Tajikistan’s special services found out that Elmirzoyev had connections with members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in other CIS countries, including Russia and Uzbekistan.

From the beginning of the year Tajikistan’s special services have arrested 50 members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Hizb ut-Tahrir and Tablighi Jamaat, which are put on the list of terrorist and extremist organizations in the Central Asian republic.

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