Tajik Special Forces Police Commander Joins ISIS

A Tajik special forces police officer who has been missing for several weeks appears to have joined the Islamic State. 

RFE/RL reports that Colonel Gumorod Halimov was a commander in Tajikistan's interior ministry's special forces unit known as OMON. A video posted by ISIS shows a man claiming to be Halimov, speaking in Russian, and threatening the United States while denigrating democracy.

He also said that migrant workers from Tajikistan who travel to Russia for work are serving infidels. He said that they join ISIS and help establish Sharia law around the world, including in Tajikistan.

Halimov joined the police in the 1990s, and received tactical training in both Russia and the United States. In the video, he claims to have received training in Moscow and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

It is unclear when Halimov left Tajikistan. His family says he disappeared some time after April 13 after telling his wife he was going on a three day business trip. However, his coworkers say that he left after a May 6 meeting with higher ups in the Tajik security apparatus.

The father of eight justified his choice to leave the police force and join ISIS by referring to a recent Tajik crackdown on Islamic expression, including how people dress and pray in public.

Such restrictions have become more common in repressive Central Asian states like Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan that fear their Islamic majority populations may draw inspiration from ISIS and the Arab Spring.

A different RFE/RL report says that the Uzbek authorities have banned women from covering their heads and also taken aim at traditional skullcaps worn by men.

The report also said that the authorities have removed certain banners hanging at mosques if they did not approve of the message.

If Halimov is any indication, the policies of repressing Islamic expression to ensure security may very well end up having the opposite effect.