Convicted Islamic State militants started a riot at a high-security prison in Tajikistan, in which several guards and dozens of inmates were killed. Local authorities have ramped up security in the vicinity.

The riot broke out late Sunday at a heavily-guarded prison facility in Vahdat, Tajikistan, just 15km east of the capital, Dushanbe, according to Justice Ministry officials quoted by local and Russian media. Armed with knives, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) convicts took prison guards hostage, demanding the immediate release of other inmates.

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The situation became more violent after the militants killed the hostages and tried to assault other guards. Security forces intervened and took “resolute measures” to bring the situation under control, but at least 29 prisoners were killed in the standoff.

Meanwhile in Dushanbe, additional police patrols were dispatched by local authorities in the aftermath of the riot. Heavy military presence is also reported close to a highway connecting Vahdat with the capital.

The former Soviet republic of Tajikistan has seen a resurgence of Islamist militancy. In 2018, another riot struck a prison in the second-largest city, Khujand. Numerous radicals tried to seize the guards’ weapons and overcome the facility. Riot police killed 24 militants and restored order after the riot, which was claimed by IS.

The incident has left the city’s security forces on high alert, and all roads to and from the area are under special control. The fact that the riot might have been inspired by an IS militant adds to concerns that the terrorist organization is gaining ground in Tajikistan, a Central Asian country bordering troubled Afghanistan.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! </s> At least 32 people, including three prison guards and 29 inmates, have been killed in a high-security prison in Tajikistan after convicted Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) fighters started a riot.

The Central Asian nation's justice ministry said the riot broke out late on Sunday in Vahdat, 10 kilometres east of the capital Dushanbe, as the fighters armed themselves with knives and killed three guards and five fellow prisoners.

One of the instigators of the riot was Bekhruz Gulmurod, son of Gulmurod Khalimov, a Tajik special forces colonel who defected to ISIL in 2015 and, according to the ministry, has since been killed in Syria.

Security forces killed 24 prisoners and restored order in the prison which has 1,500 inmates, the ministry added.

Last November, ISIL claimed responsibility for another Tajik prison riot which followed a deadly attack by its followers on tourists in July 2018.

A Tajik man, who joined ISIL before handing himself over to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told Reuters news agency last month that many foreigners who enlisted in its self-declared caliphate were jailed or killed for trying to leave.

Tajikistan has offered amnesty to those who quit the armed group and return home, provided they've committed no other crimes. </s> Image copyright Reuters

At least 29 inmates and three guards have been killed during a riot at a high-security prison in Tajikistan, the country's justice ministry said.

A group of Islamic State (IS) members killed the guards before releasing fellow IS convicts and turning on other prisoners, their statement read.

Guards then opened fire, leaving 24 more prisoners dead.

The facility is home to 1,500 prisoners and lies in the city of Vakhdat east of the capital Dushanbe.

It is the second deadly prison riot to hit Tajikistan in the last six months.

The justice ministry statement said rioting started on Sunday. IS inmates killed five fellow prisoners before taking others hostage and starting a fire.

Some of the inmates are political prisoners, and the ministry said two of those killed by the convicts were members of the banned opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), including the senior member Sattor Karimov. The party's leaders are all in exile or in prison.

It is unclear who else is among the dead.

One of the instigators was Bekhruz Gulmurod, a son of Gulmurod Khalimov. Mr Khalimov was a Tajik special forces soldier who defected to IS and was killed fighting in Syria.

Last November, 21 prisoners and two guards were killed during a riot at a maximum-security prison in Khujand, in northern Tajikistan. IS has claimed responsibility for the incident. </s> Three guards have been killed during a riot at a high-security prison in Tajikistan, the country’s justice ministry said.

At least 24 inmates have also reportedly been killed in clashes at the prison in Vakhdat, east of the Tajik capital Dushanbe, BBC reports.

The facility holds people convicted of religious extremism, including members of Islamic State (IS).

It’s the second deadly prison riot to hit Tajikistan in the last six months.

In a statement, the justice ministry said rioting started on 19 May when 30 inmates took three guards hostage, armed with knives and other sharp objects.

One of the instigators was Bekhruz Gulmurod, a son of Gulmurod Khalimov. Khalimov was a Tajik special forces soldier who defected to IS and was killed fighting in Syria.

No details of the victims have yet been released, but the ministry said the situation is under control and an investigation has been opened up.

Last November, 21 prisoners and two guards were killed during a riot at a maximum-security prison in Khujand, in northern Tajikistan. IS has claimed responsibility for the incident. </s> DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: At least 32 people were killed in a prison riot in Tajikistan, including 24 members of the Islamic State jihadist group and three guards, authorities said Monday.

Five inmates and the three guards were initially killed by prisoners in the riot that erupted on Sunday evening, and the others died in clashes with security forces trying to restore order, the justice ministry said in a statement.

The prison in Vakhdat, 17 kilometres (11 miles) east of the capital Dushanbe, holds 1,500 inmates. The ministry said the rioters first stabbed to death three guards, and then five other inmates "in order to intimidate" the others.

They then took other prisoners hostage before opening fire in the jail’s medical facilities. "Following a reprisal operation, 24 members of this group were killed and 35 others arrested. The hostages were freed" and calm restored, the statement said.

Two of the prisoners murdered by the rioters were well-known activists of the banned opposition group Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, the local prison service said.

Among the leaders of the riot, authorities identified Bekhruz Gulmurod, the son of the former head of Tajik special forces who became a member of the IS leadership in Syria and was killed there in September 2017. The 20-year-old was sentenced to ten years in prison in July 2017 for attempting to join IS in Syria.

He was previously detained at Dushanbe airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul. Authorities said the prison was now functioning normally, with the "situation currently under control." </s> Tajik security forces have killed at least 13 inmates at a high-security prison in the northern city of Khujand where a riot broke out, security sources say.

Local authorities confirmed there had been a riot at the prison, but provided no other information. Khujand lies around 300km north of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

According to an interior ministry official not authorised to comment publicly, the riot started when one inmate regarded by the authorities as a member of the Islamic State militant group attacked a prison guard.

The prison called in security forces to help quash the riot, which had now ended, said a security official.

Tajikistan, an impoverished Central Asian country, routinely reports detentions and convictions of Islamist militants. Last July, Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack which killed four Western tourists in Tajikistan. </s> DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: At least 32 people were killed in a prison riot in Tajikistan, including 24 members of the Islamic State militant group and three guards, authorities said Monday.

Five inmates and the three guards were initially killed by prisoners in the riot that erupted on Sunday evening, and the others died in clashes with security forces trying to restore order, the justice ministry said in a statement.

The prison in Vakhdat, 17 kilometres east of the capital Dushanbe, holds 1,500 inmates. The ministry said the rioters first stabbed to death three guards, and then five other inmates "in order to intimidate" the others. They then took other prisoners hostage before opening fire in the jail´s medical facilities.

"Following a reprisal operation, 24 members of this group were killed and 35 others arrested. The hostages were freed" and calm restored, the statement said. Two of the prisoners murdered by the rioters were well-known activists of the banned opposition group Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, the local prison service said.

Among the leaders of the riot, authorities identified Bekhruz Gulmurod, the son of the former head of Tajik special forces who became a member of the IS leadership in Syria and was killed there in September 2017. The 20-year-old was sentenced to ten years in prison in July 2017 for attempting to join IS in Syria. He was previously detained at Dushanbe airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul.

Authorities said the prison was now functioning normally, with the "situation currently under control."

The prison is a short drive from Dushanbe, with residential neighbourhoods nearby. It houses inmates convicted of various crimes, including terror and extremism charges, and is secured by armed guards. Families of inmates gathered near the prison on Monday to find out if their relatives were safe.

In November 2018, another riot claimed by IS left 26 people dead in Khujand, a city in the northeast of the country. That riot was initiated by a former IS member seeking to spark a mass escape. Last week a Tajik court sentenced nine of the prison staff, including the head of the prison, to jail terms up to four years of prison for "negligence."

The jihadist rioters are awaiting sentencing and face new prison terms ranging from ten to twenty years. Tajikistan, a poor mountainous country of nine million people bordering Afghanistan, has suffered from severe conflict since it gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. </s> DUSHANBE -- Three inmates in Tajikistan have been sentenced to life in prison and 30 others received sentences of between 14 and 24 years for their roles in a deadly prison riot in November.

An attorney told RFE/RL on August 13 on condition of anonymity that the men were sentenced in late July, adding that one of the three inmates sentenced to life in prison was Amirali Davlatov, who was found guilty of instigating the riot in the northern city of Khujand in which dozens of people were killed.

Relatives of the men confirmed the sentences to RFE/RL but said they had not received any official documents with information about the trial, despite a law stating they were supposed to be informed within 10 days of the trial, which was held behind closed doors.

Davlatov's wife, Oqilamoh Davlatova, told RFE/RL that her husband could not have incited the riot as he was meeting with her in the prison's short-stay section when the violence broke out on November 7.

“He was completely unaware of what was going on and asked me to bring him winter clothes as he was getting ready for the cold season," Davlatova said.

Rafoat Boboeva told RFE/RL that her son Umedjon Mirzoev, who received an additional lengthy term for his role in the riot, had pleaded guilty after being tortured into a confession.

Maqsuda Sodiqova said that investigators severely beat her son Farhod Sodiqov and broke his nose to make him confess to taking part in the riot.

Earlier in the year, prison warden Faizullo Safarzod was found guilty of abuse of office and negligence, which led to the riot. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Tajik authorities publicly acknowledged the riot two weeks after it broke out, saying that 23 inmates and two prison guards were killed in the incident.

The Islamic State (IS) extremist group said in a statement that the riot broke out after one of its "soldiers" detained there attacked a prison guard.

The penitentiary -- the high-security prison No. 3/3 -- largely houses inmates convicted on charges related to terrorism, extremism, and other serious crimes.

In May, another prison riot in the Vahdat district, some 15 kilometers east of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, claimed the lives of three prison guards and 29 inmates, including three opposition politicians. </s> DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Three prison guards and 29 inmates were killed in a prison riot in Tajikistan that the government blamed on Islamic State militants.

Tajikistan’s Justice Ministry said the riot broke out late on Sunday in the prison in the city of Vakhdat, 10 km (six miles) east of the capital Dushanbe, as militants armed with knives killed three guards and five fellow prisoners.

The militants then torched the prison hospital, took several inmates hostage and tried to fight their way out. Security forces killed 24 militants in the battle to restore order in the prison, the ministry said. The prison houses 1,500 inmates.

Among prisoners who were killed were two senior members of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), an Islamist party outlawed by the government of President Imomali Rakhmon in 2015. Another was a prominent Tajik cleric convicted on charges of calls to overthrow the government.

The authorities said one of the instigators of the riot was Bekhruz Gulmurod, a son of Gulmurod Khalimov, a Tajik special forces colonel who defected to Islamic State in 2015 and, according to the government, has since been killed in Syria. The ministry did not specify whether the younger Gulmurod was among those killed in the riot.

Hundreds of people from the impoverished former Soviet republic of 9 million are believed to have joined Islamic State, which at one point controlled large swathes of land in Syria and Iraq.

The group, which has now lost its strongholds but continues underground operations, claimed responsibility for another Tajik prison riot last November, which followed a deadly attack by its followers on Western tourists in Tajikistan in July 2018.

The government of the Persian-speaking nation which borders Afghanistan fought against Islamists - who were allied with nationalists and liberal democrats - in a civil war in the 1990s which killed tens of thousands of people.

Tajikistan’s leader Rakhmon is the longest-serving ruler in the former Soviet Union, having taken power shortly after independence, and tolerates little dissent.
Thirty-two people are killed when Islamic State members started a prison riot and a fire in a prison located in Vahdat, Tajikistan.