In striving to counteract the country’s image as a font of Islamic militantism, Tajikistan’s leaders are dodging underlying economic problems. Instead, they keep attacking the issue around its edges. The spotlight has been on Dushanbe since March, when Tajik militants carried out an attack on a Moscow concert venue that left over 140 innocent civilians dead. Two Tajiks were also implicated in an earlier 2024 suicide bombing in Iran that killed 95, and was carried out by the Islamic militant group Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K. Throughout the spring, Tajik President Imomali Rahmon’…