Jamaat Ansarullah, commonly known as Tajikistan’s Taliban, finds itself disillusioned with its goal of establishing its desired government in Tajikistan, 18 years after its founding and despite fighting alongside Afghan Taliban against Afghanistan’s previous government.
The Tajik group Jamaat Ansarullah was established in 2006 by Tajik followers of extremist Islamist movements and Tajik government opponents, particularly those who had taken refuge in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the Tajik civil war (1992–1997).
The group’s first leader, Amriddin Tabarov (also known as Mullah Abdullah Tajik), was a military commander opposed to the Tajik government during the civil war. After the war, Tabarov moved to Afghanistan, where he continued his activities, trying to attract new followers and strengthen his group to counter the Tajik government and establish an Islamic regime.
Tabarov was killed in 2015 during a clash with Afghan government forces in Kunduz, and Mahdi Arsalon was chosen as his successor. Since the group’s formation, its military structure, membership count, and identity of its members have remained undisclosed. Intelligence reports have given varying estimates of the group’s size, ranging from about 100 to 250 members.
After the fall of the Afghan republic and the Taliban’s return to power, Mahdi Arsalon took on responsibilities in the Taliban’s military units along Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan. However, concerns over the Afghan Taliban’s cooperation with terrorist groups, which was seen as violating the Doha peace agreement, led Tajikistan’s Taliban to be removed from sensitive border areas.
Although three reports from UN Security Council monitors in 2022, 2023, and 2024 confirmed the presence of foreign terrorist groups in Afghanistan, including Jamaat Ansarullah, no clear information exists on the current status of the group’s leaders, including Mahdi Arsalon. In January 2024, Radio Free Europe’s Tajik service reported, citing sources, that Arsalon disappeared en route from Badakhshan to Kabul while traveling to meet Taliban leaders.
The Uncertain Status of Tajikistan’s Taliban
Since the formation of Jamaat Ansarullah, Tajikistan’s Taliban have been based in northern and northeastern Afghanistan, particularly in Badakhshan, near the Tajik border. Prior to the collapse of Afghanistan’s republic, the group’s members operated under Taliban commanders Mawlawi Amanuddin Mansoor and Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat. Following the Taliban’s return to power, Mansoor became the Taliban governor of Badakhshan and later the head of their air forces, now commanding the 217 Omari Corps in Kunduz. Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat, appointed chief of the Taliban’s army, remains a powerful non-Pashtun figure within Taliban ranks.
Jumakhan Fatih, a Taliban commander close to both Fitrat and Mansoor, reportedly maintains the most contact with Tajikistan’s Taliban. According to sources in Badakhshan, some Ansarullah members are currently under Fatih’s command but are prohibited from operating along the Tajik border.
In July 2022, following reports that five Badakhshan districts bordering Tajikistan had been entrusted to Mahdi Arsalon, Fatih appeared in a video denying Arsalon’s presence in Badakhshan, stating that he would not allow anyone to pose a threat to Afghanistan’s neighbors. He referred to Arsalon and his forces as “mujahideen migrants” and recited a Quranic verse emphasizing the unity of Muslims.
Despite Tajikistan’s government voicing concerns over drug trafficking networks along its border with Afghanistan over the past three years, it has reported only one armed conflict with Ansarullah members. In September 2023, Tajikistan’s National Security Committee announced that three Ansarullah members, equipped with U.S.-supplied weapons, were killed in a clash with Tajik border guards after crossing from Afghanistan into Tajikistan’s Kuran district.
Tajikistan is the only Central Asian country that has not established open relations with the Taliban or handed over the Afghan embassy to them. Early in the Taliban’s return to power, President Emomali Rahmon stated in the UN General Assembly that he would not recognize the regime in Kabul until an inclusive and legitimate government was established in Afghanistan.
Tajikistan’s Taliban in Online Spaces
Many Tajikistan Taliban members are active on Telegram, where they post inflammatory messages against Emomali Rahmon’s government through limited-audience channels. Content in these channels suggests that Jamaat Ansarullah’s members are caught between allegiance to the Afghan Taliban’s emirate and the ISIS-Khorasan caliphate.
A recent video circulated in these Telegram channels showed a young man in military clothing exercising in what appeared to be a training area, with a caption encouraging “mujahideen not to forget daily exercise.” Posts are shared in Cyrillic and Persian, including videos of Mullah Obaidullah Mutawakkil, an inspirational figure for ISIS-Khorasan who was killed in Kabul shortly after the Taliban’s return to power.
Another video features a child calling on the people of Tajikistan to wage jihad. Many Ansarullah members also distribute videos by a Tajik jihadist named Qari Yusuf, who emphasizes waging jihad in Tajikistan, calling Rahmon’s regime “treacherous, tyrannical, and oppressive.” Appearing sometimes in military attire, Qari Yusuf’s location remains unknown, but he is active across social media platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram.
In Afghanistan, a similar dual allegiance exists, with some following Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader who emphasizes the “emirate until eternity,” and others supporting ISIS-Khorasan’s global jihad. According to UN Security Council reports, members of various international terrorist groups in Afghanistan, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, have joined ISIS-Khorasan.
However, Tajikistan’s situation remains ambiguous, and Telegram content suggests that Ansarullah’s members are conflicted. Additionally, sources in Badakhshan report that due to Mahdi Arsalon’s uncertain fate, the group’s military structure has disbanded, with some members now engaging in daily life and local market activities.
A source in Nasi district mentioned that several Ansarullah members have married local women and are working in local markets. Nevertheless, members of Ansarullah continue to speak of jihad against Rahmon’s government in their Telegram channels, claiming that Tajikistan’s government is un-Islamic.
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