ASTANA, October 4. /TASS/. The recruiters of the perpetrators of the terrorist act on the Crocus concert hall were members of the Islamic State - Khorasan Province terrorist organization banned in Russia, Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov said at a meeting of the Council of Heads of CIS Security and Intelligence Agencies.

"We know for certain that the recruiters of the perpetrators of the terrorist attack were members of IS-K and were specifically targeting the Tajik diaspora in Russia through the Internet from Afghanistan," Bortnikov stated.

The terror attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue in the city of Krasnogorsk just a stone’s throw from Moscow’s city limits was staged on the evening of March 22. The attack claimed 144 lives and left 551 more people hurt. Four perpetrators — Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakram Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Mukhammadsobir Faizov — were detained in Russia’s Bryansk Region bordering Ukraine by the next morning. Later, seven more suspected accomplices — brothers Amichon and Dilovar Islomovs, their father Isroil Islomov, Alisher Kasimov, Lutfullo Nazrimada, Yakubdzhoni Yusufzoda, and Mukhammad Sharipzoda — were also detained. Ashurov, who, according to investigators, helped the Islomov brothers obtain fake documents, was detained in Tver on April 16. Five more accused of involvement in the terrorist attack were detained in Dagestan, four of whom were members of the Islamic State - Khorasan Province organization.