ROME: Italian police said on Monday they had arrested a Tajikistan citizen who went to fight in Syria ten years ago and is still an active member of the militant Islamic State group.

Born in 1992, the man — identified only by the initials S.I. — had been on the run and used various aliases and nationalities, including claiming to be from Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and Ukraine.

He was arrested at Rome’s Fiumicino airport after arriving on a flight from Eindhoven in the Netherlands on Monday morning, police said in a statement. He had been subject to an international arrest warrant.

His arrest was part of broader “preventive” action by Italian authorities, police said, noting also the “extreme delicacy of the current international background”.

They did not elaborate, nor did they give further details about how he was tracked down, although Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi highlighted the importance of working with police in other countries.

In a statement, Piantedosi hailed the arrest as a “very important result” by law enforcement authorities working to “counter the terrorist threat”.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2024