DUSHANBE, May 12, 2015, Asia-Plus – Colonel Gulmurod Halimov, Commander of OMON (Special Purpose Police Unit) of the Interior Ministry, has not shown up for work since early May.

Some sources at the country’s power-wielding structures and Halimov’s friends say that he has collected detailed information about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), its ideas and armed formations from social networks lately.

“He became devotee of ISIL and began to spread ISIL ideas among his friends,” said one of Halimov’s friends, who wanted to remain unnamed.

According to information from the power-wielding structures, Halimov has knocked together a group numbering ten people (all of them are mainly unemployed men) and they left for Moscow on May 1.  On May 2, they were reportedly seen at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

An official source at the power-wielding structures said that it could not be ruled out that Halimov had been promised fat money for each of recruited militant.

Meanwhile, Deputy Interior Minister, Major-General Ikrom Umarzoda, says he has no information about the whereabouts of Colonel Halimov.

Umarzoda neither denied nor confirmed the information that Tajik police special unit commander had joined ISIL militants in Syria.  “I know nothing about it,” the deputy interior minister told Asia-Plus in an interview today.

Colonel Gulmurod Halimov was appointed commander of the Tajik special police unit three years ago.