POREG VIEW: The ambush is the work of Islamic militants who have staged a series of audacious attacks in the past one month in and outside the Tajik capital Dushanbe. But the Sunday ambush of the military convoy heading for the Rasht district that borders volatile Afghanistan is by far the biggest and most devastating too. The militants were heavily armed.

Tajik defence ministry officials believe that the attackers were led Mullo Abdullo, a radical Islamist who has been active in the Chechen and Afghan theatres in recent years. He reportedly returned home last year to breathe fresh life into the motley group rebels he was associated with earlier under the banner of United Tajik Opposition he was associated with during the civil war in the 1990s. All these rebels are mostly based in the Rasht valley.

Abdullo is credited with the daring escape of some 20 Islamist militants from a central jail near the capital last month. They all headed for the Rasht Valley, which is frequented by the jihadi fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan.  These links could be the reason for the presence of Pakistani, Afghan and Chechen jihadists at the ambush site.

The message is loud and clear. A new jihad corridor has emerged from Central Asia to Waziristan in Pakistan through Afghanistan. This is cause for concern to all neighbours, China including.