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October 19, 2006

Kyrgyzstan: Three Islamists Sentenced To Death

Yesterday, Interfax reported that three of the six people who took part in a raid upon a border guard post on the Takikistan/Kyrgyzstan frontier have been sentenced to death. A spokesman for Osh City court said: "The court found all six members of a criminal group guilty and sentenced Muraly Rakhmanov, Madamin Shadiyev and Nurulo Khudzhoyev to death. Talantbek and Makhamatnur Zhoroyev received 10-year prison sentences each, while Dilnozakhon Nishanbayev was sentenced to three years in jail. But his sentence will come into force after his child turns eight years old."

All six individuals had been charged with forgery, attempting a coup and calling for a coup. They had also been charged with attempts on the lives of officers from the security services, murder, smuggling, and acting to incite racial and religious hatred.

Rakhmanov, Shadiyev and Khudzhoyev (an Uzbekistan citizen) were further convicted of membership of a criminal group led by Bakhtiev Akhunov, who was killed by the SNB, the Kyrgyz special services this summer. This individual appears to be the individual who was killed on September 2, who was named as Rasul Akhunov. He had been shot during a special operation in the town of Osh, which lies near the border with Uzbekistan. The SNB said that Akhunov had taken part in the gang raids that took place in May, which saw a number of customs officials and border guards killed.

The group led by Akhunov has links with extremist religious groups, such as the Islamic Movement of Turkestan (IMU). IMU is another front of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which was founded in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1998, with the intention of forming an Islamist state in Uzbekistan. It is led by Tahir Yuldosh, who gained permission in May 1999 from Afghanistan's Taliban to establish a base in the north of that country, where he is still thought to reside. A senior figure in the group, Juma Namangani, was made a "deputy" of Osama bin Laden in 2001. He trained militants in northern Afghanistan but has recently been killed, according to Yuldosh. In Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital, the IMU (which has about 700 active members) carried out car bombings in February 1999, and has taken foreigners as hostages.

The Islamic Movement of Turkestan is a recently-activated group, according to the Regional Anti-terrorist Structure, Vyacheslav Kasymov. Where the IMU aimed originally to create an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, MIPT the group's later ambitions to have a pan-national state has led to some members to call themselves the Islamic Party of Turkestan. They aim to see a state comprising Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and the Xinxiang province of China.

The raid for which the three men, Muraly Rakhmanov, Madamin Shadiyev and Nurulo Khudzhoyev, were sentenced to death took place on May 12. Members of the Islamic Movement of Turkestan attacked the frontier post of Tajikistan and the customs post of Kyrgyzstan. An influential cleric from the city of Kara-Suu in southern Kyrgyzstan was detained later in the month, and questioned about his involvement in the May 12 raid. He was released after 12 hours.

However, on August 6, while traveling in a car with two other individuals through the nearby city of Osh, the imam was killed. A source said: "Special task forces of the National Security Service and the Interior Ministry assisted by Uzbek law enforcers detected a group of militants traveling through Osh in a Daewoo Nexia. They tracked the vehicle outside the city limits. The militants opened fire at the officers when they tried to stop the car."

The imam and the other two people in the vehicle were killed. SNB officials claimed that all three were suspected of attacking customs and border posts in South Kyrgyzstan, and also to have killed policemen in Tajikistan. The imam, Muhammadrafiq Kamalov, aka Rafiq Qori Kamoluddin (pictured, right), was leader of the Al-Sarahsiy Mosque in Kara-Suu. He was under suspicion from the authorities as he allowed members of HIzb ut-Tahrir to worship at his mosque.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which seeks to establish a caliphate, is regarded as a terror group in Central Asia, and has links with the Islamic Movement of Turkestan. The raids on May 12 were thought to be tied to attempts to create terrorist atrocities to mark the anniversary of the massacres of civilian protesters in Andijan in Uzbekistan, which took place on May 13, 2005.

Vyacheslav Kasymov stated: "We are especially concerned about the fact that IMT has activated recently and is organizing specific terrorist actions. This, in particular, is illustrated by the events of 12 May of the current year, when a group of terrorists attacked the frontier post of Tajikistan and the customs post of Kyrgyzstan...In the course of investigative measures it was identified that IMT had planned to conduct a series of terrorist attacks timed to the one-year anniversary of Andijan events."

He added that "for this purpose, terrorist had prepared a large amount of aluminum powder and other substances used in the production of self-made explosive devices...Besides, 17 machine carbines, a machine gun, and a sniper rifle were seized." Kasymov explained that "this fact once again proves the arguments that Andijan events were the result of the activity of international terrorist organizations.....They steal cars, kill innocent owners, and factually openly move along the roads of Kyrgyzstan." Kasymov said that the "cynicism and impudence" of the Islamic Movement of Turkestan was a cause of mounting concern.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 19, 2006 3:30 PM

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