AKIPRESS.COM - Militants from the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq have published a video saying that they have asked permission from the group's senior leadership to wage jihad in Tajikistan, RFE/RL's Tajik service has reported.

A bearded ethnic Tajik who appears in the video and who claims he is fighting with IS in Iraq says that Tajik militants in Islamic State approached the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with a proposal that they return home to "fight infidels" in Tajikistan.

The militant, who gives his nom de guerre as Abu Umariyon and looks to be around 30 years old, has appeared in a number of other videos, according to RFE/RL's Tajik Service. Abu Umariyon says he is from the small town of Samsolik in the Nurobod district of Tajikistan's Rasht Valley.

Abu Umariyon says that he and his fellow Tajik militants asked Baghadi and Islamic State leaders for permission to go back to Tajikistan and fight with the extremist group Jamaat Ansarullah.

However, Baghdadi did not give his permission.

"The emirs [militant leaders] who passed on their message to Baghdadi told them that right now they have to wait," the Tajik militant explains.