Tajik security services seized 28 persons suspected of membership in international terrorist organizations this year, National Security Committee deputy head Abdullo Nazarov said on Monday, Interfax reported.
"We have seized 28 members of al-Qaeda, the Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan since the beginning of this year. All of them were trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan," he said.
The Tajik Supreme Court sentenced four citizens to 8-15 years in custody on terrorism charges in late August. The committee said that all of them belong to al-Qaeda.
"Terrorist movements in Tajikistan, their ideology and goals do not win sympathy of average citizens and therefore do not endanger national stability," he said.
In all, about 200 transnational terrorist groups have been neutralized in Tajikistan since 1991, the year of independence, Interior Minister Abdurakhim Kakhorov said.