A Tajik activist and blogger who is a native of the Central Asian nation's restive Gorno-Badakhshan region (GBAO) has reportedly been arrested in Moscow and may be extradited to Tajikistan, where rights activists say he faces illegal incarceration and arbitrary prosecution.
Relatives and friends of Maqsud Ghayosov told RFE/RL on August 18 that the blogger was detained in Moscow a day earlier. It is not known where Ghayosov is being kept as Moscow police have not commented on his arrest.
According to the relatives, Ghayosov's arrest may be linked to his online blogging activities that intensified earlier this year in the wake of mass protests in Gorno-Badakhshan that were violently dispersed by the authorities.
Ghayosov's satirical Instagram blog, Bobingi, has more than 47,000 subscribers. He also has taken part in various social events in Gorno-Badakhshan in the past.
At least three natives of Gorno-Badakhshan have gone missing in Russia in recent weeks. Two of them appeared in Tajikistan as the government continues to track activists from the restive region after the deadly protests.
In April, an informal leader of Gorno-Badakhshan youth in Russia, Amriddin Alovatshoev, was sentenced in Dushanbe to 18 years in prison after he was convicted of hostage-taking, illegally depriving others of their freedom, and "other crimes," charges his relatives call trumped-up.
Alovatshoev was arrested in Russia in January and disappeared before later showing up in custody in Tajikistan.
Deep tensions between the Tajik government and residents of volatile Gorno-Badakhshan have simmered since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Protests are rare in the tightly controlled nation of 9.5 million, where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled with an iron fist for nearly three decades.
The latest crackdown on activists in Gorno-Badakhshan followed protests initially sparked by anger over the lack of an investigation into the 2021 death of an activist while in police custody and the refusal by regional authorities to consider the resignation of regional Governor Alisher Mirzonabot and Khorugh Mayor Rizo Nazarzoda.
The rallies intensified after one of the protesters, 29-year-old Zamir Nazrishoev, was killed by police on May 16, prompting the authorities to launch what they called a "counterterrorism operation."
The escalating violence in the region has sparked a call for restraint from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Western diplomatic missions in Tajikistan, and human rights groups.