Tag Archives: Islamic extremism

Ukraine security forces arrest two Tajik men

JUNE 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Security forces in Ukraine arrested two Tajik men at Kharkiv airport for allegedly being members of the radical IS group, media reported. According to reports, the men were returning to Tajikistan from Syria via Turkey and Ukraine. They planned to target various sites with bombs. Governments in Central Asia are concerned about growing IS influence.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Two Kyrgyzstani die in Istanbul attack

JUNE 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two of the 44 people who died in an attack on Istanbul airport by three suspected Islamic extremists were from Kyrgyzstan, media reported. Passengers for a flight to Bishkek were checking in when the three attackers opened fire on a terminal building and then detonated suicide bombs.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kazakhstan links Aktobe attacks to Syrian imam

ALMATY, JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s interior minister, Kalmukhanbet Kassymov, said attacks earlier this month in Aktobe by two dozen armed men had been ordered from Syria, the strongest suggestion yet that the government linked the violence to the extremist group ISIS.

His comments appeared to clear up an inconsistency in the Kazakh authorities’ explanation on the motives behind the attacks.

After the initial attack on June 5 on two shops and a police outpost in Aktobe, the authorities had alluded to a link with ISIS but a few days later President Nursultan Nazarbayev then suggested they had been part of an attempted colour revolution sponsored by the West. Coloured revolution means, in the FSU, a pro-Western, foreign-funded movement.

Now, though, the government line appears settled.

Mr Kassymov said that up to 45 men had gathered in an apartment before the first attack.

“When they all gathered in an apartment, they listened to an address from a so-called imam, apparently from Syria, who said that they needed to carry out a sacred jihad,” Russian media quoted him as saying. “The investigation will prove this.”

He also said that the last few gunmen who had escaped the shoot- out on June 5 had now been captured or killed. He said that, in total, 18 gunmen had been killed and nine arrested.

Three security officers and four civilians were also killed in the attacks, in the most serious in Kazakhstan’s 25 years of independence.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Extremists are increasing, says Kyrgyz police

JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police said in a statement that they have identified around 4,000 extremists in the country, more than double the previous census they had published in September 2015. Most of the individuals that the police classified as extremists belong to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic party. A word of caution, though. Countries in Central Asia have a record of inflating the number of extremists and terrorists, which they use as a scapegoat to crackdown on opposition.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Uzbek court jails ISIS sympathisers

JUNE 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Uzbek court in Samarkand jailed six locals who had planned to join the radical group ISIS in Syria and had incited others to practice Sharia law. The court handed out sentences of six to nine years. All the accused, five men and one woman, pleaded guilty. Official reports say that dozens of Central Asians travel to Syria every month to ISIS.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Editorial: Attacks in Aktobe

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh officials have been quick to blame Islamic militants for a series of attacks in Aktobe, northwest Kazakhstan, that killed at least 25 people.

This, if proved, would be alarming as it would confirm links in west Kazakhstan with Islamic militants in both the North Caucasus and Syria/Iraq. The Islamic militant explanation, though, would also help President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s narrative. He made it clear that if the Kazakh population didn’t support him they would be faced with a dystopian future.

And this version of events, of course, could be accurate, time will tell. But no group has taken responsibility and there is an alternative explanation.

Some analysts have said that the attacks were organised by disgruntled members of the Kazakh elite. Mr Nazarbayev, 75, is looking weak. He hasn’t organised a clear succession and is presiding over a worsening economy. By destabilising the country, a rival would be piling on the pressure.

This is the alternative explanation for the Aktobe attacks that the gov- ernment doesn’t want discussed.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Gunmen target Kazakhstan

ALMATY, JUNE 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An estimated two dozen gunmen attacked two arms shops and a police post in Aktobe, northwest Kazakhstan, killing at least six people, attacks that Kazakh officials quickly linked to Islamic militants.

Four gunman were also killed in the initial attacks and another 14 were killed over the next four days as security forces hunted the group.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called a national day of mourning for June 9 and ordered security forces across the country to mobilise to a high level of alert.

“According to the information that we possess, this terrorist act was organised by supporters of radical pseudo-religious movements. They received their instructions from abroad,” he said in a statement on June 8. Kazakh authorities have previously used this terminology as code for Islamic militants.

These are the worst attacks in Kazakhstan’s 25 years of independence from the Soviet Union. They also come at a highly sensitive time with the economy performing poorly mainly because of low oil prices and unrest growing amongst ordinary Kazakhs. There is also a growing sense of unease that Mr Nazarbayev hasn’t effectively organised a succession, creating a potential leadership vacuum.

There have been no claims of responsibility from any groups for the attacks. Mr Nazarbayev blamed the attacks on people who wanted to destabilise the government.

“In countries where these revolutions succeeded, there is no longer a working state and stability, only rampant poverty and banditry that create conditions for the emergence of extremists and terrorists,” he said.

If confirmed that Islamic militants were behind the attacks, this will be Mr Nazarbayev’s worst nightmare. Security forces have been worried for at least half a decade that Islamic militant recruitment in the west of the country, which has a high proportion of frustrated young men, was rising. Links have developed between the anti-Russia insurgency in the North Caucasus and west Kazakhstan and also between the radical group ISIS in Iraq and Syria and Kazakhstan.

Some analysts have said, though, that the attackers may have been organised from within by disgruntled members of the Kazakh elite who want to destabilise the government.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Taliban threatens Uzbekistan

MAY 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Taliban forces attacked a border post in Afghanistan in the Kaldar district just a few kilometres south of the border with Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government has long feared a spillover of fighting between Taliban or other rebel forces and Afghanistan’s army into its southern regions.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Kazakhstan blocks Tumblr

APRIL 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s government blocked the blogging platform Tumblr because of concerns it was being used by Islamic extremists to recruit and groom young men to join the radical IS group in Syria and Iraq. Kazakh media quoted security forces as saying that IS used Tumblr to build its various propaganda websites. Governments in Central Asia have been accused of being a soft-touch for IS recruiters.

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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Coup trials start in Tajikistan

APRIL 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan sentenced Alisher Nazarov, nephew of former deputy defence minister Abdukhalim Nazarzoda to 3-1/2 years in prison, in what marks the beginning of a series of trials of people accused of a coup attempt last September. Nazarzoda, who allegedly led the armed insurrection, was reportedly killed on Sept. 15 by the Tajik army. The apparent coup attempt lead to a crackdown on Islamists across the country and a ban on supporting religious parties.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)