ISIS Claims Attack on 2 American Cyclists in Tajikistan

On July 29^th, four cyclists in Tajikistan, including two Americans, died when a car hit them. All five passengers in the car then proceeded to get out and attack the cyclists with knives and a gun; ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack the next day in a tweet, their first in Tajikistan. Tajik authorities, however, allege that the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) is responsible for the attack. Senior members of the IRPT denied responsibility claiming that the government was using the incident for political purposes. Four of the five alleged terrorists have been killed, and one is in custody.

Before being banned in 2015, the IRPT was the second largest political party in Tajikistan. Since then, the government has passed numerous laws targeting the IRPT, going so far as to imprison people for merely speaking about the group. The government of Tajikistan further claims that the IRPT are terrorists that have sent people to support terror groups in Syria and that they are currently working to carry out an Iranian-backed coup attempt in near future.

While terror attacks in Tajikistan are rare, Islamist movements in the region are not uncommon. The government claims thousands of its nationals have joined organizations like al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and regional cells of ISIS within or near Tajikistan. A video released by ISIS two days after the aforementioned violence purportedly shows the five men that carried out the assault pledging allegiance to the head of international terror organization. One of the men in the video reportedly resembles a photo of one of the alleged terrorists the Tajik government has released to the public. It is believed that around 1,300 nationals of Tajikistan left Tajikistan to join ISIS in Syria from the onset of the civil war through 2016.

In any case, it is unlikely that a group like ISIS would be officially blamed after further investigations are conducted. The Tajik government has been trying to increase tourism to Tajikistan, and this year has officially been declared the year for “New opportunities for Investment and Tourism” by the Tajik government. A terror attack from the most notorious terrorist organization in the world would be counterproductive to this initiative, while the opportunity to attack the most popular opposition organization within the country is clearly beneficial.

Americans traveling to Tajikistan have been warned by the U.S. Department of State to be careful when traveling to or within the country. The President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, has ordered that security measures be strengthened across the country. The United States will monitor the flow of foreign fighters returning back home to Tajikistan in order to track the potential growth of ISIS cells within the country.