DUSHANBE. Jan 27 (Interfax) - Tajik police detained almost 50 individuals suspected of terrorism in 2013, Tajik Deputy Interior Minister Abdurahmon Buzmakov told reporters on Monday.
"While holding investigative and special operations, 48 members of terrorist organizations, including 31 member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and 17 members of the Jamaat Ansarullah [Helpers of Allah], were identified and detained in 2013," Buzmakov said.
In late 2013 a member of Jamaat Ansarullah, which the authorities accuse of organizing an explosion near a police station in September 2010, was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison. Back then a suicide bomber claimed the lives of two Interior Ministry employees and injured several dozen.
The Tajik authorities consider Jamaat Ansarullah to be a branch of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is active in the Fergana Valley shared by Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
In 2012 the Tajik law enforcement authorities detained 150 members of various extremist organizations, 76 of whom were recognized as members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan by courts.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has ties with al-Qaeda, urged to violent overthrow of secular governments in Central Asia and of turning them into Islamic states. The activities of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are recognized as terrorist acts in the United States, Russia and a number of other countries.