DUSHANBE. Sept 6 (Interfax) - The law enforcement and security agencies of Tajikistan are going to verify the reports that a former commander of the country's police special forces unit, Gulmurod Khalimov, has been appointed to a high post in the hierarchy of the terrorist organization Islamic States (banned in Russia).
Several media outlets said last week that Khalimov had replaced ISIL's slain "minister of war" Tarkhan Batirashvili (al-Shishani).
"The (security) agencies have been tasked not only with ascertaining the significance of Khalimov's current position in the terrorist group Islamic State, but also with preventing him from possible destructive actions in Tajikistan," a spokesman for the Tajikistan Prosecutor General's Office, Muhammadrizo Khalifazoda, told Radio Liberty's Tajik-language service.
The Tajik authorities have announced their intention to cooperate with other countries in catching and neutralizing Khalimov whose group has reportedly redeployed from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan.
Khalimov, also known as al-Tajiki, spent eleven years training under counter-terrorism programs run by the United States Department of State, and is well familiar with the U.S. counter-terrorism principles. He joined ISIL in April 2015.