A self-identified agent of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB) Mahmadali Rasulov has uploaded a video to Facebook that alleges that in February GKNB chief Saymumin Yatimov began to devise a plot to assassinate Muhiddin Kabiri, the self-exiled leader of a banned Tajik opposition party.

Kabiri, who leads what remains of the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT), has been residing in Europe under political asylum. In describing the assassination plot, Rasulov referred to parallels with the death of another self-exiled Tajik political figure, Umarali Quvvatov, who was gunned down in Istanbul in 2015.

Rasulov claimed to have quit the GKNB after being involved in gathering intelligence on Kabiri and the assassination plan.

“Our task was to collect information. For the murder of Muhiddin Kabiri, we would of course have had to bring specially trained employees over to Germany. And let me assure you that the plot to kill Muhiddin Kabiri is still in place. Until this happens, the country’s leadership and the leadership of the GKNB will not rest,” Rasulov said in the video.

The Tajik government blocked the social media website in Tajikistan following Rasulov’s upload.

The Tajik authorities have cracked down on IRPT members since the party was banned in 2015. Prior to the ban, IRPT was the only registered political party of Islamic affiliation in the whole of Central Asia. It also served as the only formidable political opposition force to the Emomali Rahmon regime.

The party failed to enter parliament in the February 2015 election, which international observers considered neither fair nor free. Kabiri, announced in June 2015 that he had gone into self-imposed exile prior to the banning of the IRPT amid repeated threats and fear for his life.

The IRPT has been branded by Tajikistan as a “terrorist organisation”, a move which was recently “recognised” by the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.