Tajikistan asks Islamic opposition party to 'cease illegal activities'
The ex-Soviet country's justice ministry sent a formal note to the beleaguered party
DUSHANBE (AFP) - Tajikistan on Friday demanded that the country s largest opposition party halt its "illegal activities" in a move widely seen as an effective ban on the group.
The move comes after Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) failed to win a single seat for the first time since the end of the civil war in a disputed March vote that left autocrat President Emomali Rakhmon s party without real opposition in the parliament.
The ex-Soviet country s justice ministry sent a formal note to the beleaguered party demanding that it "cease its illegal activities" as it attempted to hold a congress.
The note, which comes amid increasing pressure on the impoverished Central Asian country s largest opposition party, is seen by analysts as an offer to close voluntarily. IRPT has ten days to respond to the letter.
The note said that the "Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan is no longer a republican-level party."
The IRPT is the only registered faith-based party in the former Soviet Union and is one of the few potential sources of genuine opposition to Rakhmon s 22-year rule.
It has become an umbrella opposition bloc for moderate Muslims as well as more secular-minded Tajiks following the 1997 peace deal between the government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) that ended a five-year civil war.
After March parliamentary polls the party has been strongly targeted amid a crackdown on religion, including a ban on importing hijabs and reports of forcible beard shaving.
Friday s statement said that Tajik legislation forbids non-republican level parties from holding congresses and indicated that nearly 60 branches of the party had been voluntarily dissolved following its shock failure to make the parliament.
On Tuesday, an economic court in the Tajik capital Dushanbe sealed off the party s headquarters.
Earlier this month, the Tajik government shut down the IRPT s publishing house, citing sanitary and fire safety violations.
