Tag Archives: Islamic extremism

Azerbaijani security forces arrest 19 men

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani security forces arrested 19 people during an operation in a Baku suburb which they said was designed to root out terrorists.

Tension is running high in the suburb of Nardaran. Last week six people died, two policemen and four gang members, during a shoot-out between the security forces and a group they said had been plotting a series of attacks.

Witnesses to the operation this week said that armed police surrounded Nardaran and moved in with armoured cars. Photos also showed Nardaran residents burning tyres and stockpiling stones ahead of the police operation. There were no reports, though, of fighting.

Azerbaijan is formally a secular country although the majority of the population are Shia Muslims. Nard- aran is one of the most conservative areas in the country, a place where most women wear head scarves. Head scarves have been banned at schools in Azerbaijan but they are still a common sight in Nardaran.

Azerbaijan’s pious Shia community often turns to Iran for support and state-linked media in Tehran has been reporting on the Azerbaijani security forces’ operations in Nardaran. It described the operation as the start of another crackdown on the Shia community.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have been improving over the past few years. The security force’s action in Nardaran this week and the violence last week threatens to undo some of this improvement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Turkmenistan strengthens border

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Turkmen military has been fortifying the country’s southern border with Afghanistan, the official government website said. Turkmenistan is increasingly worried about the move north of the Taliban.

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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Georgia strengthens border security

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s security services said it had strengthened its border controls after at least 130 people were killed in Paris earlier this month by so- called Islamic radicals. Recruiters sending people to IS in Syria have used Georgia as a transit country to access east Turkey.

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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Tajikistan extends website blocks

NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s parliament passed a law which will make it legal for the authorities to switch off the internet during counterterrorism operations. The Tajik authorities regularly block access to social media and news websites which they say promote Islamic extremism, irritating free speech campaigners.

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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Six killed in gun-battle in village near Azerbaijan’s capital

NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two Azerbaijani policemen and four gang members were killed during a gun-battle in a village near Baku when the authorities raided what they described as the stronghold of a group with links to religious extremists.

The fierce battle, which involved machine gun fire and grenades, shocked people living in Baku, triggered warnings from the authorities of a rise in violence linked to extremists and threatened to damage Azerbaijan’s relations with neighbouring Iran.

Although they didn’t explicitly link violence to IS in Syria, the authorities have been increasingly nervous of IS recruitment in Azerbaijan.

In a statement Azerbaijan’s prosecutor-general said that the group, called the Muslim Unity Movement was planning various attacks across Baku and that they had links to Islamic extremists.

“These people and their supporters gathered in Baku and other regions, stocked with various types of weapons, ammunition, explosives,” the prosecutor-general said.

“During the operation, the gang showed armed resistance to police officers and started firing automatic weapons, hand grenades were also thrown.”

The prosecutor-general also said that 14 so called gang members were arrested during the raid in the village of Nardaran.

But neighbouring Iran viewed the incident differently.

The men who were killed were Shia Muslims. Azerbaijan is officially a secular country and the authorities have previously cracked-down on the Shia community, much to the irrita- tion of Iran. The Iranian official media was scathing of the Azerbaijani authorities’explanation.

The Iranian-state owned PressTV described the violence as a crackdown on Azerbaijan’s Shia Muslims.

“The attack came as Shias gathered for a religious ceremony in the village of Nardaran to mark Arabaeen, December 2, the 40th day since the death of Imam Hussein and his followers in a battle of Karbala,” it said. “The reports said violence erupted when security forces attempted to arrest Tale’ Bagirzade, the leader of the MMU, who was delivering a speech on the occasion.”

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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

IS fighters call for uprising in Georgia

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An internet video allegedly produced by the Islamic extremist group IS called on Muslims living in Georgia to overthrow the government and set up a caliphate.

Speaking in Georgian, a group of fighters brandishing Kalashnikovs and wearing Islamic headdress referenced Georgia’s involvement in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I would like to address the faithless people living in Georgia that have been fighting Islam for a long time. Everybody who has acted against Islam, no matter in Iraq or Afghanistan, will be judged by God’s law,” one of the fighters said.

“You consider yourselves to be very far from Caliphate, thinking we cannot reach Georgia but I would like to remind you of the period when Caliphate was established in Georgia.”

This is the first direct threat made by IS against Georgia.

The Georgian security services have warned that IS has stepped up its recruitment in Georgia, and specifically in the Pankisi Gorge in the north of the country, which is home to Muslim ethnic Chechens.

The day before the IS video surfaced, security forces said they had arrested a 29-year-old Georgian citizen living in the Pankisi Gorge on terrorism related charges. It has also strengthened border checks.

Georgia is an overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian country. It has been an enthusiastic supporter of US action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Georgia wants to join NATO and views its involvement in both wars as an extension of its diplomatic policy by showcasing its loyalty.

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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kyrgyz Imam sentence doubles

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, doubled a jail sentence for Rashod Qori Kamolov, a Muslim Imam, to 10 years after an appeal by a local prosecutor. Kamolov was sentenced earlier this year for inciting religious discord. Kyrgyzstan and other coun- tries in Central Asia are wary of the spread of radical Islam.

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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kyrgyz police arrest IS recruiter at Osh airport

NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Osh said that they had arrested a 19-year-man who was actively recruiting for the IS extremist group based in Syria and Irag.

Governments in Central Asia have been warning, increasingly shrilly it seems, that IS are recruiting more heavily from disaffected young men in Central Asia. IS has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Paris last week that killed last least 130 people.

“A young man has been sending recruits from Osh region to participate in wars abroad as part of terrorist organisations in Syria and Iraq with further intention of committing unlawful acts on the territory of Kyrgyzstan,” media quoted the ministry of interior as saying.

“He was also doing the financing, documentation and buying of tickets for recruits to countries of conflict zones.”

Police said that they arrested him at Osh airport as he was helping a recent recruit on his way to Istanbul and then on to Syria. They also said that they had found various fake ID cards, SIM cards and laptops on him.

There has been more than a trickle of recruits from Central Asia heading out to join IS, the most famous being a police chief from Tajikistan, but Western analysts have been disparaging of the image of Central Asia as a major IS recruiting ground.

A more established recruitment area for IS is in Moscow, where an economic downturn has cost Central Asian migrant workers their jobs.

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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Uzbekistan jails IS associate

NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -The US-funded RFE/RL reported that a court sentenced an Uzbek man to jail for being a member of IS. IS has been stepping up its activities in Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Russia pulls out of Tajikistan base

NOV. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Media in Tajikistan reported that the Russian military had started to pull out of its base in Kulyab, near the border with Afghanistan, a potentially destabilising move in a fragile border region.

There was no explanation as to why the Russian military would pull out of Kulyab but relations have become increasingly strained with locals.

Russian soldiers have been accused of getting drunk and fighting with locals as well as not paying local workers their full salaries, an accusation the Russian base has refuted.

Still, whatever the underlying reason for the withdrawal, Kulyab is one of three bases that Russia uses in Tajikistan and quitting it will change the dynamics.

Russia has 7,000 soldiers stationed in Tajikistan, its largest deployment outside Russia.

It has warned that Taliban activity in northern Afghanistan could threaten Central Asia and encouraged the region’s governments to strengthen their militaries.

The Kremlin, though, has ruled out taking back responsibility for patrolling Central Asia’s borders.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)