Tag Archives: Islamic extremism

Tajik court tries 23 men for links to radical Islam

MARCH 12 2015 (The Bulletin) – A court in the northern Tajik town of Khujand is trying 23 men for allegedly belonging to an offshoot of the banned Islamic extremist group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), media reported. Tajikistan says is has become increasingly concerned about Islamic extremism.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Extremists make gains in north Afghanistan

MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – The black flag of the extremist group IS has been seen flying in north Afghanistan close to the border with Central Asia, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. This is important because Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have both said they are worried about the Taliban moving north.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Azerbaijan detains 6 for IS activities

MARCH 4 2015 (The Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s security services said they had detained six men linked to the extremist IS group who planned a string of attacks in the country. The authorities in Azerbaijan have previously said they are worried about the radicalisation of some of its population by IS.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

IS is a threat to Tajikistan, says Russia

MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – Russia’s defence minister, Anatoly Anatonov, said IS groups in Afghanistan posed a threat to Tajikistan. Russia has been a consistent siren on Tajikistan, warning of the threat to its stability once NATO withdraws from Afghanistan. Russia maintains a garrison in Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Kyrgyzstan says IS has increased recruiting drive

MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – IS and other radical Islamic groups have turned southern Kyrgyzstan into a rich recruitment grounds, the head of the Kyrgyz National Security Committee, Rakhat Suleimanov, said. Some Western analysts, though, have questioned the veracity of these claims saying that they allow the security services to clamp down on dissent.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Two men jailed in Kazakhstan for IS link

FEB. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in the central Kazakh town of Temirtau sentenced two men to eight and 11 years in prison for links to radical Islam and plotting a series of attacks. One of the men, prosecutors said, tried to recruit people to head out to join the extremist IS group in Syria.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)

Kyrgyzstan stops more IS recruitment

FEB. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s security services have uncovered 30 more attempts by the radical group IS to recruit young disaffected Kyrgyz men for their army in Syria, the US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported quoting the government. The authorities also said an imam at a large mosque had been arrested for supporting IS.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Tajikistan imprisons extremist recruiters

FEB. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tajikistan has sentenced 13 members of a group linked to the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) to jail for 9-12 years for trying to recruit young men to travel to Syria to fight for the extremist organisation IS, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Turkmenistan calls up reservists

>>Website says officers have been sent to training camps>>

FEB. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Increasingly worried by the threat from the Taliban over the border in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan is calling up more and more of its young men for military training.

The chrono-tm.org website reported that officers who form part of the reverse army have been sent on three month long training camps.

This is important because it is more incremental evidence from Turkmenistan, notoriously closed to outsiders, that it is worried about the Taliban. Last year Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his army to build defence positions inside Afghanistan after a series of attacks on Turkmenistan’s border posts killed several soldiers.

Since then, he has also tried to coordinate a joint strategy to defend Central Asia’s border with Uzbek president Islam Karimov. This sort of bilateral military alliance is virtually unheard of in Central Asia’s fractious neighbourhood.

“These actions on the urgent increase in size and readiness of the Turkmen army demonstrate serious concern the authorities hold on the potential threat from neighbouring Afghanistan and the tension on the Turkmen-Afghan border,” the website reported.

The problem for Central Asian governments is that NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has created a security void. They have said that they worry the Taliban will look to expand into Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Kyrgyz police arrest extremists

FEB. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kyrgyzstan said they had arrested several members of the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir in a number of coordinated raids across the country, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Kyrgyzstan is increasingly worried about Islamic extremists’ recruitment drive in the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)