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       An ISIS Terror Group Draws Half Its Recruits From Tiny Tajikistan

       Young migrants from the former Soviet republic were accused of an attack on a concert hall in Moscow that killed 145 people.

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       Muyassar Zargarova, the mother of one of the Tajik suspects in the terrorist attack outside Moscow, said her son had never exhibited signs of extremism.Credit...The New York Times

       By Neil MacFarquhar and Eric Schmitt

       April 18, 2024

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       The mother of one of the suspects in the bloody attack on a concert hall near Moscow last month wept as she talked about her son.

       How, she wondered, did he go from the bumpy, dirt roads of their village in Tajikistan, in Central Asia, to sitting, bruised and battered, in a Russian courtroom accused of terrorism? Even though he spent five years in Tajik prisons as a teenager, she said he never exhibited signs of violent extremism.

       “We need to understand — who is recruiting young Tajiks, why do they want to highlight us as a nation of terrorists?” said the mother, Muyassar Zargarova.

       Many governments and terrorism experts are asking the same question.

       Tajik adherents of the Islamic State — especially within its affiliate in Afghanistan known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (I.S.K.P.), or ISIS-K — have taken increasingly high-profile roles in a string of recent terrorist attacks. Over the last year alone, Tajiks have been involved in assaults in Russia, Iran and Turkey, as well as foiled plots in Europe. ISIS-K is believed to have several thousand soldiers, with Tajiks constituting more than half, experts said.

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       “They have become key to I.S.K.P.’s externally focused campaign as it seeks to gain attention and more recruits,” said Edward Lemon, an international relations professor at Texas A&M University who specializes in Russia, Tajikistan and terrorism.

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       People gathered outside Crocus City Hall outside Moscow after the terrorist attack there last month. Russia charged four migrant laborers from Tajikistan with the assault.Credit...Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

       The map locates the country of Tajikistan in Central Asia, and its capital Dushanbe. It also locates Russia to the north, and its capital, Moscow.

       Russia

       Moscow

       KAZAKHSTAN

       China

       TAJIKISTAN

       Dushanbe

       Turkey

       AFGHAN.

       Iran

       India

       Saudi

       Arabia

       Pakistan

       Russia

       Moscow

       China

       TAJIKISTAN

       Dushanbe

       Turkey

       AFGHAN.

       Iran

       India

       Saudi

       Arabia

       Pakistan

       By The New York Times

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       Neil MacFarquhar has been a Times reporter since 1995, writing about a range of topics from war to politics to the arts, both internationally and in the United States. More about Neil MacFarquhar

       Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times, focusing on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism issues overseas, topics he has reported on for more than three decades. More about Eric Schmitt

       A version of this article appears in print on April 20, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Tajikistan, Repressed and Poor, Becomes Fertile Ground for ISIS. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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