The authorities believe that the persons have ties to the perpetrators behind the attack and to ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K). All nine were arrested on Monday in the town of Vakhdat and have since been transferred to the capital Dushanbe, the source said.
It was Friday a week ago that armed men attacked the Crocus concert hall outside Moscow. 143 people were killed, and close to 100 are missing.
IS has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Russia claims to have evidence pointing to the perpetrators having ties to Ukrainian nationalists. Both Ukraine and the US reject this.
Four men who have already been arrested and suspected of carrying out the attack are Tajik citizens. Seven others have also been arrested, and some of these come from Tajikistan.
The country is a member of the Russian-led military alliance CSTO and also hosts a Russian military base. Tajik authorities have arrested the families of the suspected shooters so that Russian investigators can question them in Dushanbe, sources told Reuters earlier this week.
Tajikistan has a majority Muslim population and borders Afghanistan. The country’s 10 million inhabitants are highly dependent on contributions from Tajiks who have emigrated to Russia to work. The economy collapsed after a civil war in the 1990s.
Tags: terrorist attack Moscow Tajikistan Tajik authorities arrested people Moscow terror attack Reuters informed
