DUSHANBE, July 13, 2015, Asia-Plus — The Agency for Sate Financial Control and Combating Corruption says a group of alleged members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) have been detained in Bobojonghafourov and Jabborrasoulov districts of Sughd province.
According to information posted on the anticorruption agency’s website, operations carried out by the anticorruption agency’s office for Sughd in Bobojonghafourov and Jabborrasoulov districts have led to the arrest of several alleged members of the IMU.
Subversive literature and CDs containing sermons and appeals by former IMU leader Muhammad Tahir have reportedly been confiscated from them.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the detained IMU members under the provisions of three articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 187 (1) – organizing a criminal group; Article 307 (2) – public calls for extremist activities; and Article 347 (1) – failure to report crime. An investigation is under way.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani — both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley. Its objective was to overthrow President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, and to create an Islamic state under Sharia.
Operating out of bases in Taliban-controlled areas of northern Afghanistan, the IMU launched a series of raids into southern Kyrgyzstan in 1999 and 2000. However, in 2001 the IMU was largely destroyed while fighting alongside the Taliban against coalition forces in Afghanistan. Namangani was killed, and the IMU”s remaining fighters were dispersed. Yuldashev and an unknown number of fighters escaped with remnants of the Taliban to Waziristan in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. On September 30, 2009, a man, who claimed to be Yuldashev”s bodyguard, reported to the Pakistan newspaper The News International that Yuldashev was killed in a US Predator drone airstrike. The United States and Pakistan officials afterwards confirmed Yuldashev was killed in an airstrike on August 27, 2009. Yuldashev reportedly lost a leg and arm in the drone missile strike on August 27, 2009 and was rushed to a hospital in Zhob in Baluchistan, but died the next day. His death was formally announced by the IMU on August 16, 2010. On August 17, 2010, the IMU announced that Yuldashev”s long-serving deputy, Abu Usman Adil, had been appointed the group”s new leader.
