On 18 May 2026 a delegation from Tajikistan participated in a solemn ceremony at the Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow to accept capsules containing soil from the burial sites of national figures Nusratullo Maksum, Shirinscho Shokhtemur and Nisar Muhammad Yousafzai. The capsules were handed over by Russian authorities and arrived in Dushanbe on 19 May 2026, where President Emomali Rahmon received them at the airport.
The mission to repatriate this Tajikistan soil was carried out at the direct instruction of the Leader of the Nation and is presented as part of state efforts to restore historical justice and preserve national memory. The ceremony in Moscow and the transfer of soil to the national memorial complex in Dushanbe were described by the Tajik delegation as a spiritual reunification with the homeland for historical figures who served the people.
The delegation was headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sirojiddin Muhriddin. Officials said the capsules now form part of a national memorial complex in Dushanbe, symbolising the continuity of generations and the inseparable link between Tajikistan’s past and its present and future.
Nisar Muhammad Yousafzai, born in 1897 in the village of Zaida in Swabi District, North-West Frontier Province, is recognised among the three men whose burial soil was transferred. A decorated soldier of the Third Anglo-Afghan War, Nisar later joined Soviet political life, took part in a Soviet expedition in Gilan and became an advocate for a separate Tajik republic within the Soviet structure. He served as Tajikistan’s first People’s Commissar of Education from 1926 until his arrest on 8 October 1937 during the Great Purge. He is also noted to have been a Pashto instructor at Moscow University and fluent in Pashto, Persian, Russian and Uzbek. During his arrest by the NKVD he was shot following a deadly altercation in the interrogation room.
The return of this Tajikistan soil carries particular resonance in Pakistan as it highlights the Swabi roots of Nisar Muhammad Yousafzai and underscores historical links between the region and the early formation of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. Tajik authorities frame the transfer as a concrete step in preserving national memory and honouring individuals who played significant roles in the republic’s creation.
