"I can not wait for these guys to be the ones who committed Tajikistan"

Terrorist expert Peter Knoope, associated with the Clingendael Institute, is not surprised that the attack was most likely perpetrated by the EI. "The terrorist group is slowly moving from the Middle East to other regions and is expressly seeking competition with al-Qaeda, trying to show that they can have an impact."

The government of Tajikistan is now also talking about an attack, but is pointing in a different direction. According to the government, a banned Islamic party is responsible for the attack. According to Knoope, the government tends to continually blame this party for all that goes wrong in the country.

The breeding ground of the IS

It explains that the government pursues a repressive policy with regard to Islam. "Many Islamic expressions are forbidden: you can not go to Mecca, you can not go to the mosque, repression is a very strong tool for the government to keep the population under control."

And that while the vast majority of the population in Tajikistan is Muslim. "It's partly why the IS is a breeding ground, people do not feel heard and have little opportunity to express themselves or to manifest themselves politically," Knoope says.

"Most residents also have little economic space, only a certain elite is right, and this exclusion in political and economic terms gives the population a tendency to rebel, and then this rebellion is then suppressed , and then you have all the ingredients together. "