Grand-nephew of Gulnazar Keldi, lyricist of Tajikistan national anthem, has been jailed for membership in radical Islamist group and fighting alongside Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

Some media reports say the Dushanbe city court sentenced Iqbol Keldiyev, 28, to 14 years in prison in late January.  He was found guilty of being member of the Jamaat Ansarullah terrorist group and fighting alongside Taliban militants in Afghanistan.  

Iqbol Keldiyev reportedly joined Jamaat Ansarullah in 2011 while working in Russia as labor migrant.  He left Russia for Pakistan and from there went to Afghanistan in 2014.  In 2015, Keldiyev was detained together with several Taliban militants in Afghan Kunduz Province.

In 2016, the Afghan court sentenced him to 16 years in prison for document forgery and fighting alongside the antigovernment forces.  In late 2018, Iqbol Keldiyev was extradited to Tajikistan.  

Meanwhile, Gulnazar Keldi considers that poverty and unemployment in the county causes some young people to join extremist groups.

He said in an interview with Asia-Plus that his grand-nephew had gone Russia seeking better employment opportunities and there he had come under the influence of emissaries of extremist groups.  “He went to Pakistan where he was wounded, and then he went to Afghanistan,” Gulnazar Keldi said.

Tajik popular poet expressed hope that the Tajik authorities will amnesty those wayward young people because “the majority of them realized their guilt and repented.”  

Jamaat Ansarullah, also known as the Society of Allah’s Soldiers, first came to light in September 2010 when the heretofore unknown organization claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on September 3 in Khujand.  An explosives-packed car rammed into the building of the Sughd regional organized crime control department, killing two officers and two civilians and wounding 28 people.  The suicide bomber was local resident Akmal Karimov, who was reportedly trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In September 2011, Jamaat Ansarullah issued several videos calling on Tajikistan’s citizens to embrace jihad against “infidels” and urging them to take action to support the implementation of Islamic Sharia law.  “Those who pray namaz, who follow fasting rules but support democracy are nonbelievers,” a man on the video said. “Allah is killing nonbelievers by our hands and, thus, blesses us.”  Some politicians and experts, however, doubt whether these videos can really be traced back to Jamaat Ansarullah.

In May 2012, Tajikistan’s Supreme Court officially banned Jamaat Ansarullah as extremist group on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.