Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda has confirmed information that Tajik nationals wanted by Turkish authorities could have contacts with terrorist organizations.

“The Ministry of Interior of Tajikistan has sent inquiries and information about Tajik nationals suspected of being linked to the Istanbul nightclub gunman to the Turkish authorities.  We have informed them that those persons are members of a terrorist organization and they are wanted for crimes they have committed.  However, we have not yet received response to our inquiries,” Rahimzoda stated on January 20.

In all, more than 20 inquiries regarding Tajik nationals suspected of having contracts with terrorist organizations have been sent to Turkey, the minister noted.

According to him, the Tajik interior ministry has closely collaborated with the Turkish law enforcement authorities straight after the terrorist attack at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul.

“We have responded to all their inquiries.  As a result, it has been established that the attacker is not a Tajik national,” Rahimzoda noted.  

Recall, Turkish police on January 18 rounded up 27 people mostly from central Asia who they said were linked to an Uzbek gunman charged with killing 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's eve.

Turkish anti-terrorism squads reportedly raided seven addresses in simultaneous operations in the northwestern city of Bursa, arresting 27 suspects from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan as well as from China's minority Muslim Uighur community. Fifteen of them were women.

Police took 29 children into protective custody and seized 15 mobile phones set up with fake identity cards at one house that was connected to a Tajik national who police said was an Islamic State facilitator for foreign nationals.

The gunman, identified as 34-year-old Uzbek national Abdulkadir Masharipov, was caught in a police operation in Istanbul on January 16.

Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper said Masharipov, married with two children, was a dual Uzbek-Tajik national.  He reportedly received two years training in Afghanistan and Pakistan and was believed to have entered Turkey via Iran.