Islamic State’s Khurasan Branch Continues Trend of Celebrating Tajik Martyrs: A Profile of Umar at-Tajiki

On October 17, the Islamic State Khurasan Province’s (ISKP) Al-Azaim Foundation for Media Production published issue 16 of its Voice of Khurasan magazine series. The magazine is in part geared toward furthering ISKP’s media strategy of regionalization and internationalization.

One trend closely tracked by Militant Wire in the past year has been ISKP’s intensified efforts to broaden its appeal and expand its messaging reach to Central Asian Muslims. To do so, ISKP’s Al-Azaim has produced propaganda wings for the production and translation of Islamic State materials into Tajik and Uzbek. It has also increased its criticisms and threats towards Central Asian governments, following through on its hostile rhetoric with rocket attacks on Uzbekistan in April and Tajikistan in May.

But perhaps the most notable trend has been ISKP’s frequent celebration of Tajik fighters within its ranks and exaltation of Central Asian martyrs (from Tajikistan in particular) in its media productions.

And, once more, in the new Voice of Khurasan issue, ISKP’s propagandists published a biography of a Tajik national, this time a young man named Umar at-Tajiki who was killed in an inghimasi operation against the Taliban in Herat.