MOSCOW: Tajikistan has arrested nine people in connection of last week terror attack on Moscow’s concert hall that killed at least 144 people, reported the Russian’s state news agency RIA Novosti on Friday.
The suspects, arrested by the Tajikistan’s State National Security Committee, believes have links to the Russian concert hall shooting suspects as well as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) that claimed the responsibility of the deadly attack, a Tajik security source told Reuters.
Among the detainees are four suspected gunmen involved in what has been dubbed the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades. They were captured along with seven others, some of whom hail from Tajikistan, a country in the ex-Soviet Central Asian region.
The State Security Committee of Tajikistan carried out the arrests on Monday in Vakhdat, subsequently relocating the suspects to the capital city, Dushanbe. Further details regarding the arrests were not disclosed.
The attack on the concert hall near Moscow last Friday had left at least 144 people dead.
Tajikistan, part of a Russian-led security bloc and home to a Russian military base, has also detained family members of the suspected gunmen. This measure allows Russian investigators to interrogate them in Dushanbe, as reported by sources to Reuters earlier this week.
With a population of around 10 million and a predominantly Muslim demographic, Tajikistan heavily relies on remittances from migrant laborers in Russia. The nation’s economy suffered significantly during a civil war in the 1990s.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the concert hall attack, with US officials citing intelligence pointing to the involvement of the network’s Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K).
Contrary to Russian investigators’ claims on Thursday linking the concert hall gunmen to “Ukrainian nationalists,” the United States swiftly rejected the assertion as unfounded propaganda.
Kyiv has also denied any role in the attack on the concert hall.
