DUSHANBE, 18.10.2017 /NIAT “Khovar”/. The XVI Meeting of heads of special services, security agencies, and law enforcement agencies, partners of the FSB of Russia had been in Krasnodar (Russia) on October 4, 2017, where the key issues discussed measures to strengthen international cooperation in the field of countering terrorist threats (IR RATS SCO www.ecrats .org).

Director of the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (RATS SCO) Sysoev E.S mentioned in his speech the activities of the terrorist-extremist organization /TEO/ “Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan”, the “Islamic State”, “Jabhat al-Nusra” and “Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement” as a serious factor that poses a threat to regional security. The participation of meeting were 124 delegations, including the heads of special services of 78 states and heads of international and regional organizations.

Taking into account the close ties of the TEO “IRPT” with international terrorist organizations, Sysoev E.S. stressed that “the search for and implementation of adequate joint measures to counter these threats in the context of the ongoing attempts of the international terrorist organizations to transfer hotbeds of instability from the Middle East to the borders of the SCO member states, as well as the continuing departure of their citizens to participate in combat operations on the side of the ITO, is the main content of the activities of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure … «. The Director of the RATS SCO Executive Committee noted that given the emerging operational situation the main priority of the RATS is to counter foreign terrorist-fighters. To this end, there is being conducted a proper exchange of proactive information on the activities of the ITO “Islamic State”, “Jabhat al-Nusra” “Hizb-ut-Tahrir al Islami”, “Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement”, “Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan” and others.

At a meeting of the highest statutory of the RATS, which was held in September this year in Beijing, the issue of combating criminal activities of the IRPT was also the theme of special consideration of the leaders of the SCO member states anti-terrorist structures. The basis for this was the inclusion of the TEO “IRPT” under No. 79 in the List of terrorist, separatist and extremist organizations, whose activities are banned in the territories of the SCO member states, and its leaders and functionaries in the Single search register of persons, declared by special services and law enforcement agencies of the SCO member states on the international wanted list for committing or suspected of committing crimes of a terrorist, separatist or extremist nature.

Such a serious assessment of the terrorist nature of the “IRPT” and in a high level of development of adequate measures to counteract its illegal activities are caused by the need to take into account historical experience and the consequences of the IRPT’s terrorist activities for regional security at the present stage. As the expert Karim Vohidov points out “the connection with the functioning of the “IRPT” the problems of foreign terrorist-fighters, which became the theme of consideration at a special meeting of the UN Security Council in 2014, is not accidental. According to the law enforcement agencies of Tajikistan, based on the testimony of convicted senior executives of this organization, namely the terrorist-extremist organization “IRPT” has created and oversees a network of illegal channels for the supply of new recruits to the ITO “Islamic State”. According to official statistics, from 1,140 identified citizens of Tajikistan, who are in the ranks of the armed units of the ISIL, 521 of them are members of the IRPT.

It should be noted that in the arena of terrorist activities “IRPT” is not a novice and dilettante, but, on the contrary, it has more experience than the ITO “Islamic State”. Back in the early 90s, in Tajikistan, the “IRPT” led the armed groups of radical Islamists who attempted to forcibly change the constitutional order of Tajikistan and impose Sharia’s orders in the country. As a result of the ensuing five-year civil war, more than 150,000 people were killed. The national economy suffered damage in the amount of more than 7 billion US dollars. More than 2 million citizens were forced to leave their homes and become refugees. For these years, the “IRPT” organized dozens of terrorist attacks against government officials and prominent public figures.

On September 2015, the “IRPT” again implemented plans for a large-scale terrorist acts in Tajikistan, the outcome of which should have been not only the beginning of a bloody confrontation in the country, but also the opening of the “mountain gate” for the penetration of the partners of the “IRPT” into the Central Asia – groups of the international terrorist organizations, accumulating in the border provinces of Afghanistan and consisting of largely of citizens of the Central Asian republics. The timely and decisive counter-terrorism measures taken by Tajik law enforcement agencies prevented the implementation of this bloody scenario”.

Today, Tajikistan efforts to contain and neutralize the terrorist aggression of the “IRPT” are backed by the powerful potential of the entire “Shanghai family”, including such great states of the world as Russia, China, India, and Pakistan. Suffice it to say that the total population of 8 SCO countries (India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) is more than 3.3 billion people, the territory — 34 million km². The dialogue partners of the SCO are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey, Sri Lanka, and observer states — Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia.

Along with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the TEO “IRPT” is also in the focus of attention and response of such authoritative international organizations as Interpol, the CIS Antiterrorist Center, and the CSTO. Included in special accounts of these anti-terrorist structures, the members of the TEO “IRPT” are subject to detention, arrest, and prosecution for terrorist crimes committed by them. A number of functionaries of the TEO “IRPT” were already detained in various parts of the world, where they tried to escape from justice and continue to prepare terrorist acts and recruit new recruits.

However, the territory of countries, where still existing “double standards” show them loyalty, is getting reduced. There is confidence and hope that as the international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and extremism is strengthened, this territory for the “IRPT”, “ISIL” and like them would be soon confined to zones of correctional colonies, and peaceful people live without a feeling of fear of terrorist danger.

Suhrob RASHIDOV