BISHKEK: Members of an armed Islamic group crushed by US-led forces in 2001 have regrouped under a new name in Central Asia and are forging fresh ties with other militant organisations, Kyrgyz officials warned Wednesday. Having received 400,000 dollars (346,000 euros) from international terror funds, remnants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) which staged cross-border incursions until 2001, âare attempting to penetrate Central Asia from Afghanistan,â said Tokon Mamytov, chairman of Kyrgyzstanâs national security service. The secular leadership of this former Soviet republic has long been concerned at the possibility of a resurgence by the IMU, whose leader, Uzbek warlord Juma Namangani, was reportedly killed during the US-led overthrow of Afghanistanâs Taliban leadership. There is solid evidence of involvement in recent bombings in Bishkek and the second city Osh by former IMU members who have renamed themselves the Islamic Movement of Turkestan, Boris Poluektov, another official of the national security service, said.
| Well, that oughta throw anybody chasing them off their trail. The false noses and chin whiskers help, too, but I'm not sure about the blond wigs... |
Poluektov added that this reformed movement had âformed close tiesâ with Western Chinese Islamic separatists and with the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation, a group which Western observers have always considered non-violent despite its ambition to create an Islamic state in Central Asia.
| Hey! I'm western. I'm an observer! I don't consider them non-violent... |
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