JAN. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Tajik soldier was killed on the border with Afghanistan during an operation to track down smugglers, government sources told AFP. The porous border is one of the main drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan. Shoot-outs and the kidnapping of locals, used as pawns to trade for captured Afghans, is commonplace.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019
DEC. 28 (The Conway Bulletin) — Prosecutors in Sweden charged three men from Central Asia with plotting to commit terrorism and for financing the IS extremist group. Three other men are also charged with financing IS. All six men are from Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan. The three men had bought chemicals and other kit and were intent on killing dozens of people, prosecutors said. Last year a failed Uzbek asylum seeker was sent to prison in Sweden for killing five people in an attack in central Stockholm in 2017.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019
SEPT. 25/28 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia and Kyrgyzstan held joint counter-terrorism drills in eastern Kyrgyzstan, part of large series of wargames by CIS member states. Ahead of the exercise, which involved 400 pieces of military hardware, 30 Russian aircraft and a missile defence system, Russian officials said that they were important because of the increased terrorist threat from Afghanistan.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018
ALMATY, JAN. 31 2018 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government is pushing a new bill through parliament that it says will strengthen the security forces ability to crackdown on what it describes as “religious extremists”.
The bill, which has passed a first reading, tightens rules on people travelling abroad for religious studies and makes it harder for children to attend churches or mosques.
Nurlan Yermekbaev, the religious affairs minister, seemed to go further and said that police would also target people wearing long beards and short trousers, both associated with devout Muslims. He said that there would be no blanket ban on long beards or particular clothing but that police would be allowed to issue on-the-spot fines if they thought that the beards and clothing were “promoting extremism”.
The European Evangelical Alliance also said it was worried the new laws would stop groups meeting up in private for bible study sessions.
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— This story was first published on Feb. 6 2018 in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
TBILISI, DEC. 26/27 (The Conway Bulletin) — — Police in Georgia arrested five men in Tbilisi and the Pankisi Gorge who, they said, were linked to the IS extremist network and had helped arm a group of militants who fought police for several hours during a raid in Tbilisi in November.
In November, three militants were killed and one security service agent died in a raid on a flat on the outskirts of Tbilisi.
Separately, the Turkish authorities said that they had also arrested a Georgian national on suspicion of being linked to IS.
The Pankisi Gorge in the north of Georgia is renowned as a hideout for Islamic fighters. It was considered a safe place for Chechen fighters battling Russian forces in the early 2000s. More recently it has proved a fairly fertile recruitment ground for IS.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
SEPT. 20 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan is blocking Iranian membership of the Russia and China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) because it accuses Tehran of supporting a banned Islamic party, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported. The SCO is often viewed in the West as a military organisation, although its functions and institutions go further. It is focused on Central Asia, although this year India and Pakistan joined. SCO ascension needs approval from every member.
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— This story was first published in issue 344 of The Conway Bulletin, now called the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Sept. 24 2017.
— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2017
SEPT. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a post-Soviet grouping of most militaries in Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Belarus and Russia, decreed at its meeting in June that the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) was a terrorist organisation, media reported. Tajik officials have arrested or forced into exile all the main members of the IRPT since 2015 after President Emomali Rakhmon accused the group of a coup attempt. Until then, the IRPT, whose top members have sought sanctuary in Europe, had been the official opposition group.
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— This story was first published in issue 343 of The Conway Bulletin on Sept. 15 2017
SEPT. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan cancelled a football match with Myanmar because of what it described as terror threats. The inference from the Kyrgyz authorities was that Myanmar’s treatment of its Muslim Rohingya minority meant the team was vulnerable to an attack. Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country. Last year a suspected Uighur extremist drove a car bomb into the Chinese embassy in Bishkek.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
SEPT. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have removed 16,000 people from a blacklist of 17,000 people with alleged links to extremist groups, media reported. Analysts said the move was another attempt by Pres. Shavkat Mirziyoyev to pursue more liberal policies and to create a clear departure from Islam Karimov, who ruled the country as an authoritarian dictator.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)
AUG. 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian media reported that a 31-year-old man from the Pankisi Gorge has been killed fighting for IS in Syria. The Pankisi Gorge is a majority Muslim area of Georgia. At least 26 people from Georgia have died in Syria and Iraq since 2012.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)