Tag Archives: Islamic extremism

Swedish police arrest Uzbek for terror attack

APRIL 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish police arrested a 39-year-old Uzbek man and accused him of hijacking a truck which he then drove into a department store in central Stockholm, killing four people.

The unnamed man was the second Central Asian to be accused of attacking and killing civilians in a week. On April 3 an Uzbek man from Kyrgyzstan blew himself up on the St Petersburg metro, killing 15 people.

The attack in Sweden has again turned the international spotlight onto Central Asia as a fertile recruitment ground for the radical IS group.

Analysts and experts have said much of the IS recruitment occurs in Russia where young men from Central Asia move to find work.

Central Asia’s leaders have been talking up the difficulties of stopping recruitment drives by the IS extremist group. Last year, on a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Bishkek, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said that the recruitment system was proving more robust than anticipated.

Last week, in the aftermath of the St Petersburg attack, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev pledged to crackdown on terrorist recruitment.

“What happened in St. Petersburg is a terrorist attack and terrorism does not have any borders, nationality or faith. This is our common pain, and this signals that we need to join forces here,” he was quoted as saying.

Details of the Swedish attacker are still emerging but media has reported that he was a failed asylum seeker who had been marked down for deportation. He avoided police, though, by giving them a false address and moving to a suburb of Stockholm known for its migrant communities.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

Russian Officials accuse Kyrgyz man for suicide bomb in St Petersbug

Leave a Reply

BISHKEK, APRIL 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Scrutiny of Central Asia as a breeding ground for Islamic extremists intensified after Russian security forces named 22-year-old Akbarzhon Jalilov from Kyrgyzstan as the suicide bomber who killed at least 14 people on Monday on the St Petersburg metro.

In the 48 hours following the attack, Russian police detained six people from Central Asia who they said were recruiting for the IS extremist group. Russia is a major destination for migrant workers from Central Asia and a vital source of remittance flows.

One of the 14 people confirmed dead in the bomb attack was a Kazakh national who had been studying in St Petersburg.

In Kyrgyzstan, people were split on the implications of the St Petersburg bomb. Many people worried about a backlash against Kyrgyz migrant workers in Russia.

“The terrorist act has caused damage to our country’s image. All over the world, they now write that the terrorist was from Kyrgyzstan,” Azamat, from Karakol in eastern Kyrgyzstan, said. “Now, many of our migrants in the Russian Federation will be affected by the terrorist attack. There will be daily inspections and other actions [by police].”

Jalilov, the alleged suicide bomber, was an ethnic Uzbek of Kyrgyz nationality who was brought up in Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan. Media reports, though, said that he had been living in Russia for a few years and had taken Russian citizenship. Earlier this year an Uzbek man was arrested in Istanbul for killing at 39 people at a nightclub on New Year’s eve.

In 2016, security forces said 600 Kyrgyz travelled to Syria to join IS and many people in Bishkek were worried that these people were returning and spreading extreme ideology.

“Radical Islam is guilty of this bombing. Some people go abroad to receive religious education, are recruited by radicals and come back,” said Dmitry, 36.

Central Asia is the focus of a debate over whether it has become the main recruiting ground for IS.

Those that say it has, have said the mix of frustrated young men with little prospects, the rise of militant Islam and the harsh tactics used by the security forces are pushing people into the arms of extremists.

Others have said this description is overblown. Edward Lemon, a research scholar at Columbia University specialising in extremism in Central Asia, said the region is not providing IS with a flow of recruits.

“These isolated attacks do not necessarily indicate that Central Asia is becoming a hotbed of extremism. In fact, the evidence suggests a slowing of the flow of recruits to IS and al-Nusra in recent months,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Tajik government promotes traditional dresses

Leave a Reply

APRIL 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik government has been campaigning for women in Tajikistan to wear traditional brightly-coloured flowing dresses in an effort to dampen the rise in popularity of Islamic headscarves and hijabs, the AFP news agency reported. Tajikistan’s government is increasingly worried about the popularity of extremist Islamic ideology and the drift of many young men towards joining the radical IS group in Syria and Iraq.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Tajikistan provides highest number of suicide bombers, says report

Leave a Reply

MARCH 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan has provided the highest number of suicide bombers for the extremist group IS, Radio Free Europe/Radio/Liberty reported quoting a report by The Hague- based International Center for Counter-Terrorism. It said that 27 Tajiks had killed themselves in Syria and Iraq, more than any other group of foreigners.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Comment: ISIS recruitment in Tajikistan is overstated, says Lemon

Leave a Reply

MARCH 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Since 2013, as many as 4,000 Central Asians have travelled to fight in Syria and Iraq. Some of these militants play a crucial role in the organisation.

In September 2016, news agencies in Iraq reported that the former head of Tajikistan’s paramilitary police, Gulmurod Halimov, had been appointed ISIS’s supreme military commander. A recent report from the International Centre for Counter-terrorism revealed that Tajiks topped the list of foreign fighters used in suicide attacks.

For some observers, this development indicates that Central Asia is becoming a hotbed of radical Islam.

Long-suppressed during the Soviet Union, interest in religion has revived in Central Asia in the 25 years since independence and this revival has created concerns that the region’s population will embrace militant Islam.

Governments in the region, and some outside observers, argue that a cocktail of poverty, lack of education and rising religious piety drive radicalisation.

But the available evidence indicates a different story.

Almost half of the fighters from Tajikistan, for example, are well- educated graduates with degrees from secular universities and numerous fighters are from relatively wealthy families.

Only a handful of recruits have received any formal religious education. Far from being young and naïve as the government claims, the average age of fighters from Tajikistan is 28 years old, with over half of the fighters between the ages of 24 and 29. Numerous fighters experienced some form of trauma or personal crisis before joining Islamic State.

In other words, non-religious factors seem to be more important than religious ones in driving radicalisation in Central Asia.

Misdiagnosing radicalisation leads to counterproductive policies. Simply explaining recruitment through naivety and ignorance underestimates the conscious decision made by many to join an extremist group. Harsh measures that restrict the religious freedoms fail to address the underlying issues as well.

Instead, more needs to be done to counter ISIS’s propaganda, addressing social injustices and creating jobs and other opportunities so there is less incentive in the recruitment of extremist groups.

By Edward Lemon, a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia University. His research examines extremism in Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Georgian police arrest US man

FEB. 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Georgia said that they had arrested a US citizen who is wanted in Uzbekistan on terrorism charges. They didn’t give any more details of the detained man except that they had started extradition proceedings. The man was arrested in the Black Sea town of Batumi. The countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus are trying to dampen growing Islamic extremism activity in the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Kazakh special forces kill Islamists

FEB. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh special forces killed six alleged Islamic extremists and arrested 15 more in raids in January in Almaty, media reported quoting the interior ministry. The ministry said they also found arms caches, including grenades. Central Asian countries have been on alert to counter a perceived growth in recruitment by Islamic extremists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Afghan authorities arrest Kazakh national

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Afghanistan have arrested a Kazakh national on suspicion of having links to terrorism, media reported quoting the Afghan foreign ministry. Media reports said that the man was from Atyrau and that he had been arrested in the northern part of Afghanistan. Kazakhstan has been trying to dampen an increase in recruitment by the radical IS group but it is rare for Kazakhs to be arrested in Afghanistan for links to Islamic extremists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Azerbaijan security forces shoot terrorists

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Security forces in Azerbaijan killed four alleged terrorists who had been plotting a series of attacks, media reported quoting a government statement. Reports did not say where the shootout had taken place. It is unusual for Azerbaijan to report a shootout between its security forces and alleged terrorists. Azerbaijan and other countries in the region have been trying to deflect a recruitment drive by the extremist IS group.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Azerbaijani court sentences 17 for links to Muslim group

JAN. 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced 17 people to up to 20 years in prison for plotting to overthrow the government and for trafficking. The men, 16 of them described as members of a group called Muslim Unity, were all arrested in a suburb of Baku in December 2015. The suburb was renowned for its pious nature. Police cordoned off the area during the arrests which triggered a shootout in which six people were killed. Rights protesters have called the trial a sham and a show trial.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)