French security services are reportedly scrambling to address an intelligence blind spot ahead of the July 26 start of the Paris Olympics.

Intelligence operatives have been seeking to develop more substantial ties with Tajiks and other Central Asians in France in guarding against potential Islamist terrorist attacks.

Reuters on July 19 reported that it spoke with more than a dozen people with knowledge of the intelligence drive. It was launched in the wake of major jihadist attacks in Iran and Russia this year that authorities say were carried out by Tajik members of Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP, or ISIS-K). A double suicide bombing at a memorial ceremony took place in Iran in January. In outer Moscow in March, gunmen opened fire at concertgoers at Crocus City Hall, killing more than 140 people.

This year it has become clear that in Central Asia, Tajikistan in particular has emerged as an attractive recruitment zone for Afghanistan-based ISKP, with repression and poverty combining to make many disillusioned young men inclined towards radicalisation that can lead to participation in terrorist activities. A bne IntelliNews columnist warned of the rise of Tajik terrorists in Islamist ranks two months before the Crocus City Hall attack.

French intelligence was said by sources spoken to by Reuters to have few Central Asian assets.

Sebastien Peyrouse, a French academic who has consulted with French and US security agencies on Central Asian militancy, told the news agency that Paris may have been slow to react to the potential threat posed by Tajiks in Europe.

"France has focused much more on radicalised people coming from the Middle East, from Algeria, from northern Africa, than from Central Asia," he said. "I think France was pretty surprised by what happened in Moscow and it could be a little bit late."

The main Tajik militant risk in Europe is said by experts to come from around a dozen radicalised men who fought in Syria. They are said to have slowly made it back to the continent via Ukraine following the decline of Islamic State in the Middle East.

Last year, seven Central Asians living in Germany were arrested on suspicion of forming a terrorist organisation. The Turkmen, Tajik and Kyrgyz nationals entered Germany from Ukraine shortly after the February 2022 Russian invasion of the country, according to prosecutors. They are currently in pre-trial detention.