A senior military official of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) on Wednesday said that the presence of ISIS and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters has increased near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan.
Andrei Serdyukov, Chief of CSTO Joint Staff, added that the training camps of these groups have expanded in northern Afghanistan.
The Russian news agency, TASS, reported that Serdyukov made these remarks during a press conference on Wednesday.
"The main threat to the stability in Central Asia comes from international terrorist and extremist organisations, namely the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda and others," Serdyukov said.
He also added that in particular, an increase in the number of fighters of ISIS and TTP has been recorded near the southern border of Tajikistan.
According to him, the increase in the flow of immigration due to the suppression of ethnic and religious minorities along with the economic crisis in Afghanistan may contribute to the deterioration of the situation.
This CSTO official also stated that uncontrolled drug trafficking and illegal distribution of weapons had a negative impact on the crime situation in the region.
Recently, the United Nations Security Council had published a report which stated that the Taliban's relationship with Al-Qaeda is still close. It stated that Al-Qaeda has established four bases in Ghazni, Laghman, Parwan and Uruzgan provinces.
This report was denied by the Taliban.
The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) is a military alliance comprising six member countries: Russia, Tajikistan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It was established in 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
