The government of Muslim-majority Tajikistan is cracking down hard on the nation's main Islamist party, which was formally outlawed late last year.
The ruling government in Tajikistan sentenced over a dozen leading members of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) to lengthy prison terms today, Agence France Presse reported. Some members received life sentences, and others were given sentences of 28 years, the outlet said.
The move comes amid a crackdown on Islam in the Central Asian country, which was a Soviet republic until winning independence in 1991.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has angered the country's Muslim majority recently by banning Islamic dress and long beards. There have been reports of police officers arresting men in the streets and shaving off their facial hair, according to The Diplomat, a news site focusing on current affairs in Asia.
Rahmon also banned the IRPT itself in September, after a failed coup led by a rogue general, Abdukhalim Nazarzoda, who was killed along with three dozen of his supporters in clashes with government security officers that same month.
In the days after the clashes, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Tajikistan's ruling government that Russia would help the former Soviet republic in its fight against Islamist insurgents.
Tajikistan has a long border with Afghanistan and has been affected by spillover violence from the insurgency in Afghanistan. US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Tajikistan last year to assure the country that America would support its war on "terrorism."
Tajikistan endured a bloody civil war in the 1990s, when Communist groups supported by Russia battled against Islamist rebels. The fighting killed 50,000-100,000 people and displaced over a million residents from their homes.
The Tajik government of President Rahmon should be wary of re-igniting old tensions, which will create fresh violence.
-HS
