The U.S.-trained former head of ex-Soviet Tajikistan's Special Forces police division, Colonel Gulmurod Halimov, who became a DAESH soldier, has a bounty of up to $3 million on his head under the "Reward for Justice" program adopted by the U.S.

According to a report released by the U.S. State Department, Halimov is considered a crucial member of DAESH who recruits a significant number of soldiers to join the terrorist group. U.S. State Department officials claimed in June that Halimov completed five counter-terrorism training courses in the U.S. and he is believed to have taken around 10 Tajiks with him, probably to Syria.After disappearing in late April, Halimov appeared in a video in May calling Tajikistan's president and interior minister "dogs."

He asked soldiers in the country's armed forces if they are "prepared to die" for a government that cracks down on public expressions of Islam, including wearing the hijab and praying in the streets. In the video, he also appealed to more than 1 million Tajik nationals who work in Russia to stop being "slaves" and join DAESH. The Supreme Court in the former Soviet State of Tajikistan designated DAESH as a terrorist group in May after Halimov announced his defection.

More than 400 Tajiks have reportedly joined the terrorist group to fight in Iraq and Syria. In June, Tajikistan's Parliament passed a law annulling the citizenship of nationals fighting abroad with militant organizations, including radical groups active in Iraq and Syria. "People will automatically be stripped of their citizenship of the Republic of Tajikistan if they fight in the ranks of terrorist groups and organizations abroad," Zarif Alizoda, the country's human rights ombudsman said in Parliament.