NOV. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan sentenced 28 people to jail for supporting militant Islamic groups, local media reported. Tajikistan’s authorities are trying to quell a strengthening Islamic insurgency. Courts in Tajikistan periodically sentence large groups of people to jail for supporting insurgents.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 65, published on Nov. 16 2011)
NOV. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh police in the Caspian Sea town of Atyrau arrested three men for two bomb blasts last week, media reported. The city’s prosecutor said the men belonged to an Islamic terrorist group that wanted to scare the authorities. One bomber died in the attack.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 64, published on Nov. 8 2011)
OCT. 31 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A suspected suicide bomber attacked two government buildings in Atyrau, a major Kazakh oil city. The blasts only killed the bomber and caused no significant damage. It was, though, the second attack this year and it raised the prospect of a sustained campaign by militant Islamists in Kazakhstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 63, published on Nov. 1 2011)
OCT. 14 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in the northern Tajik town of Khujand convicted a local BBC reporter, Urunboy Usmonov, of illegal links to an Islamic group and sentenced him to three years in jail. Under a general amnesty decreed in September, the judge immediately released Usmonov. The BBC said Usmonov had been tortured.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 61, published on Oct. 18 2011)
OCT. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz security services arrested 11 people during a nationwide anti-terrorist operation just three weeks before a presidential election. The head of the state’s national security committee, Keneshbek Dushebayev, later said militant Islamists linked to al Qaeda planned to attack during the election.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 60, published on Oct. 11 2011)
SEPT. 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A group of militant Islamists released a video threatening to attack government forces and non-believers in Tajikistan, local media reported. Central Asia’s leaders are worried about Islamic fighters moving northwards from Afghanistan. Tajikistan is considered a vital buffer against the spread of violence.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)
AUG. 31 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh police arrested 22 people in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea for plotting terrorist acts, officials said. The arrests marked an escalation in Kazakhstan’s clampdown on militant Islamists. The next day, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said extremists were a threat to the country.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 55, published on Sept. 6 2011)
AUG. 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kazakhstan blocked access to 13 websites, including the popular Russian language LiveJournal, because it said militant Islamists were using them to publish propaganda. Kazakhstan occasionally blocks websites used by militants and opposition leaders. Rights groups say Kazakhstan’s attitude towards the internet is authoritarian.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 54, published on Aug. 30 2011)
AUG. 23 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least 12 Uzbeks extradited by Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan earlier this year have gone on trial accused of religious extremism, local media reported. Human rights groups had protested the extraditions of the 26 Uzbeks. Uzbek human rights group Ezgulik said two of the accused have already been sent to jail.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 54, published on Aug. 30 2011)
AUG. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan could allow militant Islam to spread into Central Asia, Russian media quoted Nikolai Bordyuzha, secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) as saying at a meeting in Astana. The CSTO is a loose security group of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 53, published on Aug. 17 2011)