Several apparent xenophobic incidents targeting migrants from Central Asia have been recorded in Russia as the country marks a day of mourning on Sunday for the terrorist attack two days ago on a concert hall outside Moscow that killed 133 people, Radio Free Europe (RSE) reports.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon condemned the attack in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. "Terrorists have no nationality, no homeland, no religion," Rahmon said.
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The Tajik Embassy in Moscow warned citizens not to leave their homes due to concerns about possible revenge violence.
Russian authorities arrested 11 people in connection with the attack, including four alleged attackers.
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Officials said the four suspects are foreign nationals.
Unnamed officials and Telegram channels allegedly linked to security services suggested the attackers could be Tajiks or Russian nationals of Tajik origin.
The so-called militant group The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, in which at least 154 people were injured.
In Blagoveshchensk in the Russian Far East, a cafe owned by a person of Central Asian origin (Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan) was allegedly set on fire, according to several posts on Russian Telegram channels.
In the western city of Kaluga, three Tajik migrants were attacked and one was hospitalized.
In the Moscow region, a group of young people threw four Tajik migrants off a commuter train after they allegedly threatened to kill them.
Russian Telegram channel Baza reported that some regional branches of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have established special units to monitor migrants, stepping up document checks and inspections in dormitories and other places where migrants from Central Asia congregate.
The Democratic Party of Tajikistan and some members of the Tajik Parliament called on Putin to take measures to prevent xenophobia and violence.
Hundreds of thousands of Tajiks and Russian citizens of Tajik origin live in Russia.
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