Five prisoners linked to Islamic State killed in Tajikistan jailbreak attempt

A prison riot in Tajikistan resulted in the deaths of five Islamic State-linked prisoners after they attacked guards with knives

At least five prisoners who supported Islamic State were killed after attacking guards with knives and trying to break out of a jail in Tajikistan, a law enforcement source said.

According to a law enforcement source, at least five inmates who backed Islamic State were slain after attempting to escape from a Tajikistani jail and stabbed guards.(Unsplash/representative)

The Islamic State militant group was defeated in Syria in 2019 but splinter groups including Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) have continued attacks, including a mass shooting at a concert hall near Moscow last year.

Nine prisoners wielding shanks and hand-made knives attacked guards on Monday, the justice ministry said. It said the prisoners tried to kill the guards and escape from the penal colony 20 km (12 miles) east of Dushanbe, Tajikistan's capital.

A source in Tajik law enforcement, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the prisoners involved had been convicted over links to Islamic State and the Jihadi Salafi movement. Both are banned in Tajikistan.

At least three prison guards were seriously injured in the incident and the head of the prison's administration was taken to hospital in serious condition, a second source said.

Unverified video on Telegram channels showed what they said were dead prisoners in puddles of blood. At least one wore a hat with the Islamic State flag.

Andrei Serenko, a Central Asia analyst, said Islamic State supporters had started the escape attempt and briefly raised the group's flag over the prison.

No group has claimed responsibility for the riot.

ISIS-K takes its name from an old Persian term for the region, Khorasan, that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, as well as areas of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Tajikistan, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, is home to 10 million people and is one of the poorest former Soviet republics.

A criminal investigation into the incident has been launched, the Prosecutor's Office said.

In May 2019, 29 prisoners and three guards were killed at the penal colony when a riot broke out. Tajik authorities said at the time the riot was instigated by members of extremist groups. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

In 2018, 21 prisoners and two guards were killed in a prison in the northern city of Khujand in Tajikistan.