QURGHON TEPPA, August 17, 2012, Asia-Plus — Four alleged members of the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are standing trial in the southern Khatlon province.
A court in the Qumsangir district has begun considering criminal proceedings instituted against them this week.
The 24-year-old resident of the Roudaki district, Alisher Davlatov, is charged with organizing a criminal grouping, inciting ethnic, racial, regional or religious enmity, illegal border crossing, and organizing an extremist group.
Three residents of the Qubodiyon district – Nouriddin Iskhanov, Zilmurod Ishkhanov, and Shuhrat Karimov – are along with Alisher Davlatov in the same court.
Nouriddin Iskhanov is charged with organizing a criminal grouping, Zilmurod Ishkhanov is charged with organizing a criminal grouping and activity of an extremist group, and Shuhrat Karimov is charged with not reporting a crime.
Alisher Davlatov reportedly decided to join the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in August 2011 and for this he went to Pakistan’s Waziristan, where he allegedly took a military training.
On April 1, 2012, Davlatov illegally crossed the Afghan-Tajik border in the Panji Pyon (also known since the times of the Soviet Union as Nizhny Panj) area for the purpose of distributing the IMU propagation materials in the form of DVDs to residents of the Qubodiyon district, an official source at the Khatlon law enforcement authorities said.
“On April 2, Davlatov was detained by officers from the police station in the Qumsangir district and the list of names of persons, to whom he was supposed to distribute the DVDs, was confiscated from him,” the source said, noting that the names of Nouriddin Ishkhanov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov were on that list.
Alisher Davlatov admitted charges brought against partially, while Nourddin Iskhanov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov insist on their innocence.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has been banned in Tajikistan since 2000.
