Tag Archives: Islamic extremism

Kyrgyzstan starts anti-IS drive

>>US-backed website promotes drive to counter radical Islam>>

FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan has stepped up a programme in the south of the country to counter propaganda from Islamic extremists.

The website centralasiaonline.com, which has links to the US government, quoted NGO workers and people in southern Kyrygzstan explaining how the government had started a series of courses to pull potentially vulnerable people away from online material distributed by the IS extremist group.

“Young people encounter dubious information online and fall prey to the negative influence of recruiters, who lure our brothers and sons to hot spots,” the website quoted one woman who lived near Osh, the main city in the region.

Centralasiaonline.com has a clear pro-Western agenda but its report matches other media reports which have described how the Kyrgyz government is trying to counter IS recruitment ambitions in Central Asia.

IS has identified Central Asia as a particularly fertile recruitment ground because of high levels of dissatisfaction among young Muslim men.

The centralasiaonline.com report said the government had hosted six workshops for 250 people over the past couple of months.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

IS plans to attack Uzbekistan

FEB. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The radical group IS plans to attack Uzbekistan, an Uzbek security officer told centralasiaonline.com. Other media outlets broadcast the comments although analysts questioned the motive behind them. The Pentagon, which has agreed to send military kit to Uzbekistan, is linked to the website.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Kazakh woman jailed for IS propaganda

JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan have jailed a woman in the western city of Aktau for spreading audio files online that supported the Islamic extremist group IS. Kazakhstan has become increasingly sensitive to IS propaganda. IS has targeted Central Asia as a recruitment ground.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015

Russia wants to bolster Tajik garrison

JAN. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian defence minister, Anatoly Anatonov, emphasised once again that Russia wanted to strengthen its garrison in Tajikistan because of a perceived increase in threat from the Taliban now that NATO forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan. Russia has around 7,000 soldiers in Tajikistan, its largest overseas base.
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Kyrgyz, not Tajiks, killed in Libya

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry confirmed that three Kyrgyz — a pilot and two flight attendants working for a private airline — died in an attack by masked gunmen on a hotel in Tripoli, Libya on Jan. 27. Initial reports from Libya mistook the Kyrgyz for Tajiks.
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Afghan president flies to Ashgabat

>>Regional links increasingly important>>

JAN. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Afghan president Ashraf Ghani flew to Ashgabat for a two-day visit, an important trip focused on developing economic and transport links.

Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are steadily improving their ties. They have plans to build a gas pipeline across the countries, connecting Turkmenistan with markets in Pakistan and India.

During the talks, media quoted Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as saying that business between the two sides reached $1b in 2014 and would double in 2015.

Turkmenistan, enriched by various energy deals, has become an beacon of wealth and stability in the region.

Turkmenistan, though, is increasingly concerned about the spread of Islamic militants north into Central Asia. It has placed its soldiers along the border with Afghanistan on high alert.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Kyrgyz police arrest IS fighters

JAN. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The security forces in Osh, the largest city in south Kyrgyzstan, arrested six men they say had been trained at camps for fighters wanting to join the radical Islamic group IS in Syria. The authorities also uncovered a large cache of weapons with the men.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Tajiks killed in Libya hotel attack

JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Libya have said three Tajik nationals died in an attack by Islamic extremists on a luxury hotel in Tripoli. Altogether seven people and three attackers died during the raid. It’s unclear who the Tajik nationals were. The hotel was used by visiting business and political delegations.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

IS threatens Central Asia stability, says report

NEW YORK, JAN. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The radical group IS is recruiting heavily in Central Asia, the influential think tank International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote in a new report, a phenomena that could destabilise the region in the medium and long term.

In perhaps the most detailed assessment of the recruitment drive by IS in Central Asia so far, the ICG estimated that between 2,000 and 4,000 men and women had been attracted by IS propaganda to travel to Syria and fight for the radical group.

“Should a significant portion of these radicalised migrants return, they risk challenging security and stability throughout Central Asia,” ICG wrote in its 16-page report.

“Their [the five Central Asian states] security services — underfunded, poorly trained and inclined to resort to harsh methods to compensate for a lack of resources and skills — are unable to deal with a challenge as intricate as radical Islam.”

Among the incentives for Central Asians to enlist in IS ranks, the ICG points to three main triggers: The opportunity to join a religious cause abroad otherwise suppressed at home; the rejection of gloomy economic prospects; the chance to express repressed political views.

Other causes are outlined. The lack of a proper education with youth members of Islamic congregations resorting to unofficial Muslim training; the lack of social safety nets for women; the accessibility to Turkey, the major entry point for the northern battles in Syria.

The ICG argues that IS is reviving the violence among extremist groups in Central Asia as well. The ICG called for the enforcement of strict rules on terrorism and tighter security monitoring by the states in the region.

In the short-term at least, ICG wrote, preventative measures are essential for combating the IS recruitment.
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(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)

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Copyright — The Conway Bulletin

Kazakhstan and IS recruitment

>>IS have been recruiting heavily from Central Asia>>

JAN. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is desperate not
to get dragged into the debate over IS recruitment from Central
Asia.

Its intelligence services issued a rare statement denying that two
men murdered on a video last week were Kazakh. In the video the two
men spoke Russian and were accused of being members of the Russian
spy agencies. One man identified himself as coming from south
Kazakhstan.

The Kazakh intelligence services, though, said that this was not
the case.

In the IS video a young boy, who could be of Kazakh ethnicity,
shoots the two men in the head.

IS, a radical Islamic group based mainly in war-torn Syria,
recruits heavily from Central Asia and is a growing threat to the
region’s stability.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)