200 militants of Kazakhstan Jamoat fight in Afghanistan

About 200 Kazakhstan Jamoat militants fight at the Afghan territory as a part of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes, citing a report by Alexandr Knyazev, senior fellow of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The expert said that religious extremism issue has become very acute in Kazakhstan in recent months. “The extremist organizations operating in Kazakhstan (northern and north-western regions) are connected not just with Fergana Valley; their main connection is with Russian North Caucasus. This is a further evidence that these groups were not established spontaneously. Their activity is regulated from the same centers,” he said. Knyazev said that the IMU recruits youth people from Central Asia, Chinese Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region and North Caucasus. The new soldiers are transported to Afghanistan, where they train and undergo military drilling in special camps. Then the soldiers are sent to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries. “There is a substantial conflict potential there (in Kyrgyzstan). Weapons are getting accumulated there. Religious grounds will play an even greater role this year than last year. It is only the question of who exactly will trigger the conflict,” Knyazev said. He added that the IMU actively works with the population of Southern Kyrgyzstan. There is also Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization similar to IMU, operating in Kyrgyzstan now. Kyrgyz human rights advocate Toktayim Umetaliyeva confirmed this. She said that martial arts fighters from Kurgyzstan went to Uzbekistan about a month ago allegedly to establish youth martial arts sports clubs there. “Their active Internet contacts have already been pinpointed. And they are talking not about combat sports in social networks, like Facebook,” Umetaliyeva said. In her opinion the situation in Kyrgyzstan would heavily depend on the forthcoming presidential elections. Knyazev added that if Northern and Southern Kyrgyz clans fail to reach a compromise over division of positision in the new governmnet, it will be hard to avoid the conflict on religious grounds. Kazakhstan has become a terminal base for the militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan , Tengrinews reported earlier. This statement was made by Vitaliy Volkov, an expert on Central Asia geopolitical issues and German Wave radio observer. “It has been leaked that leaders of the newly formed Islamic underground operating on the basis of the IMU in Kyrgyzstan have got firm positions and are ready for armed hostilities. There are a lot of militants from Caucasus and other Russian regions in this new IMU. There are also many recruits from Kazakhstan who have joined the organization over the recent months,” the expert said.