Poll
To what degree do you agree that militant groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan have been weakened by recent events?
Photo of the Day
Children ride a decorated camel on a Karachi beach January 15. [Nazar ul Islam]
-
Collateral Damage (01:21)
Special Reports
Most Popular
Reader Comments
Uzbek fighters remain an ‘unknown quantity’ in Pakistan
IMU unwelcome in tribal areas, attracting few new recruits
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
2010-02-26
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Over the years, Uzbek militants have earned a reputation for ferocity and fanaticism. Those kidnapped by them tell harrowing tales of brutality.
-
![Suspected Uzbek militants are led handcuffed past media representatives following their arrest by security forces at Kohat in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in this 2008 file photo. [TARIQ MAHMOOD/AFP/Getty Images]](/shared/images/2010/02/26/IMUAnalysis-218_172.jpg)
Suspected Uzbek militants are led handcuffed past media representatives following their arrest by security forces at Kohat in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in this 2008 file photo. [TARIQ MAHMOOD/AFP/Getty Images]
![Suspected Uzbek militants are led handcuffed past media representatives following their arrest by security forces at Kohat in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in this 2008 file photo. [TARIQ MAHMOOD/AFP/Getty Images]](/shared/images/2010/02/26/IMUAnalysis.jpg)
Unable to return to Uzbekistan and desperate to survive in an alien place, they have aligned with the most radical Pakistani militant commanders to stay in the tribal areas. But even that is in jeopardy.
Information about Uzbek militants hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas is so sketchy that authorities still have not confirmed whether Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) leader Tahir Yuldashev was killed several months ago in an airstrike in South Waziristan.
The attack that may have killed Yuldashev, 43, took place August 27, exactly 22 days after a similar strike killed Baitullah Mehsud, founder of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in South Waziristan.
Pakistani security officials said in October that Yuldashev, commonly referred to as Qari Farooq by militants, died in the August attack. However, tribal sources in South Waziristan said at the time that Yuldashev and Pakistani Taliban commander Noor Islam were injured. The sources said Noor recovered from his injuries, but no precise information was available about Yuldashev.
Even the number of Uzbek militants operating in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan isn’t known. Sirajiddin Tolibov of the BBC’s Uzbek service, in an October 2009 article, said estimates of Uzbek militants in Pakistan range from 500 to 5,000. Pakistan’s military and security officials put their number at between several hundred to a few thousand. Tribal sources in South and North Waziristan — the two places where the Uzbeks mostly reside — believe they number about 500 to 600.
Regardless of number, Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani recently referred to the Uzbek fighters as “an unknown quantity capable of tilting the balance in favour of any local militant commander that they decide to join in Waziristan”.
He could be right because circumstances have often forced the IMU leadership to also seek alliances with other radical groups include al-Qaeda, Afghan Taliban and Pakistani jihadis active in a number of proscribed militant and sectarian organizations. But the Uzbeks have also been known to burn their bridges and create enemies in the regions where they hide out.
The Uzbek fighters are known to have often joined with local militants to eliminate tribal elders in South and North Waziristan, Bajaur and other tribal areas in a bid to overcome opposition to Taliban control and to send a stark message that pro-government and anti-Taliban tribesmen would meet the same fate. Figures vary, but a few hundred tribal chiefs have been killed and the remaining stay silent as part of this strategy.
But not all have tolerated the Uzbeks. The Ahmadzai Wazir tribe of South Waziristan, once partners with the IMU, lost patience with them. Under Pakistani Taliban Commander Maulvi Nazeer, a “lashkar” (armed tribal force) arose to expel the Uzbek militants. Pakistan’s security forces assisted Nazeer’s men with arms and money, and the Uzbeks were forced to shift to parts of South Waziristan region inhabited by the Mehsud tribe.
Some Uzbeks sought refuge in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, where Uzbek families were staying under the protection of Pakistani tribal militants. Subsequently, reports emerged from Mir Ali that the local population wanted the Uzbeks to leave but could not force them out. Area tribesmen complained that the Uzbek militants posed a threat to the communities that refused to take orders from them.
A cleric from Kaniguram village in South Waziristan, speaking on condition of anonymity, recalled that before the offensive by Pakistan’s security forces in October 2009, a number of Uzbeks were living in his neighbourhood. They were told not to come to the local mosque, as doing so would make the mosque a target for those hunting militants.
The IMU was founded in 1996 in Uzbekistan. Its strongholds were in the Ferghana valley. Its goal was to overthrow the regime of President Islam Karimov — a former communist who has ruled Uzbekistan with an iron grip — and to enforce Islamic law in the country.
A crackdown by the Karimov government forced IMU cadres to flee and seek refuge outside Uzbekistan in the mid-1990s. By August 1998, when the Taliban were in control of more than 90% of Afghanistan, the IMU established military camps in that country’s northern provinces.
The IMU suffered losses in Afghanistan in December 2001. Its leader, Juma Namangani, a former Soviet paratrooper who had fought against the Afghan mujahedeen as part of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1987-89, was reportedly killed.
Yuldashev replaced him, and under his leadership, the Uzbeks found sanctuaries in Pakistan’s tribal areas after the collapse of the Taliban regime. Fleeing Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime, in early 2002, Uzbeks and militants from several other countries started taking refuge in the Pakistan border regions.
Locals say the Uzbeks did not live quietly among the Pashtun tribes, unlike the Arab nationals. Locals complain that the Uzbeks tried to impose themselves on their hosts and used force against anyone critical of them. The Uzbeks were accused of kidnapping and killing tribal elders and introducing beheadings and other forms of torture to the area.
Pakistan’s military operations in the tribal areas and the missile attacks have weakened the militants, including the IMU. Foreign militants are on the run, seeking new sanctuaries and even venturing into urban areas in Pakistan to avoid death and capture. The IMU has retained strong links with al-Qaeda and both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. But it isn’t getting many new recruits from Uzbekistan.
The IMU’s use of violence as a creed could be one reason for putting off potential recruits. The inability of the group to operate in Uzbekistan due to the tough security measures adopted by the Karimov government has also limited its capacity to interact with the people and attract recruits.
The IMU leadership is based far from Uzbekistan in the Pakistani tribal areas and has thus been reduced to a marginal player in Uzbek politics. And, in absence of a viable democratic alternative to the dictatorial rule by Karimov, the IMU continues to pose a threat to the government in Uzbekistan.
It tried to expand its scope by renaming itself the Islamic Party of Turkestan in June 2001 and welcoming other Central Asians to its ranks. However, it appears that the IMU’s capacity to serve as an Islamic alternative to the Karimov regime has diminished.
Rahimullah Yusufzai is a Peshawar-based journalist. He is Resident Editor of the English daily The News International in Peshawar and Senior Analyst for Geo TV. He is also the correspondent for BBC's Pushto and Urdu services in the North-West Frontier Province. An expert on Afghan affairs and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, he has interviewed Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar. For his achievements in journalism, the Pakistani government awarded him the Sitara-e-Imtiaz and the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s third and fourth highest civilian honours.
Post a Comment ( Comment Policy )
Reader Comments
I am an Uzbek, and I am proud that I am an Uzbek. Uzbeks living in Pakistan call them terrorists and talibs. In the 20s and 30s, these bloody Russians called our people Basmachi, it is you who are Basmachi and terrorists. Russian, English, French, American and Israeli pigs.
Stop swinging the country! We have had enough of these Gdlyans who are to blame for the genocide taking place in Uzbekistan for seven years! It is them whom we must rebuff instead of multiplying problems with no good reason, devouring each other! We should act like the Brits who can fight and quarrel with each other inside their country but brace together in the face of an external enemy. Gdlyan now heads a Russian Foundation of Mercy and Human Rights… Can you imagine this? The crafty devil! It is him who should be unmasked. He robbed our country, targeting both people and material resources. And now he says, “Safeguard stability and peace!”
Did someone yap about Uzbekistan’s “stable” economy? Thanks to it, four million Uzbek nationals have gone abroad to work, right? And thanks to it, half of all prostitutes in Kazakhstan hold the green Uzbek passport, right? Either you have just never left your kishlak, or you are a national security stooge. Don’t disgrace the people!!! Cut it out!
This is a decent article. If it were not for Karimov, Uzbekistan would have become a second Afghanistan. Karimov is the one who keeps the country from disintegration and mess created by extremists of all stripes. If Uzbekistan disintegrates - the whole Central Asia will destabilize. This is Central Asia's tidbit. Extremists of all types eye Uzbekistan - from the stupid Taliban to shadow CIA men of America, who were behind the recent massacre in Kyrgyzstan and sought to pit Kyrgyzstan against Uzbekistan and deploy their U.S. bases in the two countries with a view to create a springboard for intervention in China. God bless our president with good health. God forbid, he suddenly dies without finding a strong and loyal successor, and Uzbekistan will become a postwar Iraq - turned to a real nest of vipers. And, of course, those poor, pathetic, worthless, ignorant extremists and militants do not know what they are fighting for - and have no clue about real Islam. Allah have mercy on those bastards.
Our policy is the best, and our president is the best. The IMU is just an group of people who have become slaves to terrorist group leaders. They do not know why they are killing and why they are fighting. I consider these people computers that can be easily manipulated. I despise terrorism. If you interrogate terrorists, they do not even know how to read a prayer correctly. Islam prohibits murder and violence.
Do not forget... of the two sides. First, ask yourself who needs government overthrown in Uzbekistan .. The IMU does not need it... the IMU is a small nut in a large mechanism, and the large mechanism sits in big buildings in quiet places .. No doubt, IDU members are crazy people who think they are fighting for truth ... for the truth which they are given, the truth they get from the main mechanism, let us call it (the Brain), it feeds them, provides them with clothes and informs them because they need it ... time will come and this small nut will wear out and be replaced ... Do not forget that the 21st century main war is an information war, so do not believe rumors ... Do not believe someone else's truth, use your brains ... Uzbekistan is the most stable country in Central Asia ... with an advanced economy compared to its neighbors ... and the state is doing everything for the people..! And I'm glad
I am surprised at these creeps' deeds. They are to blame for the death of innocent people. They are a disgrace to Islam.
PEOPLE, WHAT DOES THE NATION HAVE TO DO WITH IT?? THERE ARE GOOD AND BAD PEOPLE ... DO NOT FIGHT, AND DO NOT HATE EACH OTHER. CRUELTY BELONGS TO BAD GUYS, NOT THE UZBEKS. DO NOT ACCUSE THE NATION ... WORLD PEACE ....
ha
How you can kill people gesturing that you are fighting your president? If they really want to inform people, they should take a pen and write to inform their nation in their country, just like what the Azari people do in Iran in order to achieve their rights.
These parasites live in a foreign country and do not know what they are fighting for. These rascals are afraid to live in Uzbekistan because we would not let them behave this way. Everything is good here in Uzbekistan, cannot be better, but these idiots damage the name of Uzbekistan! I am proud to be a citizen of Uzbekistan!
I am surprised, the article is very stupid, almost at the level of "grandmothers sitting on the bench and gossiping." What an idiot posts such boring news?
DUSHANBE
Atrocity or cruelty towards human beings is characteristic of those who are screwed-up in their sub-consciousness and largely comes from cowardice. Only cowards can be so cruel to defenseless people. That was evident from Fergana events when they brutally slaughtered and abused the Mesheti Turks, and the Osh events in 2010 when Kyrgyz were killed in most brutal ways (opened up bellies of pregnant females, severed heads). Uzbeks were never soldiers, they were always cowards. When their number is small they are nice, but when they outnumber you, you are in trouble, they are like jackals.
In general, Uzbek militants are like jackals. I cannot speak about them as a whole, but they are are like jackals that should be exterminated.
These warriors are fighting for the bubbles, which they even don\'t realize what is the real islam is? They criticise the innovations, prosperity, the things invented in the modern period of humanity, but they hold AK, guns, bullets, even tanks. These are not prohibited, but the radio, internet, generally modern things are banned. What are they fighting for? Let\'s face it. They fight for power, authorithy in muslim countries as well as Central Asian states. If they come to the power, they will use all chances to develop the military, army for conquering other countries. Then they provide the growing of narcotic plants for maintenance of export of weapons from developed countries such as USA, Russia. Shame on them, without realizing the real meaning of holy Islam they fight for fake prirority
After reading these words of the honored Pakistani journalist, I do not believe in his professionalism any more. The purpose of IMU fighters was far from toppling the president and establishing compliance with Islamic laws but rather fighting for power in Uzbekistan, scrapping them in the interests of so-called flourishing democracies and giving way to the radical Wahhabi movement (“the Salafites”). These Wahhabists came to power in Saudi Arabia as far back as the beginning of the previous century. And they continue to serve truly the interests of the USA, Britain and Israel up to the present day.
Yousafzai forgot to mention that Uzbek Talibans are brazen to the extent that they have been forcibly evacuating locals from their own houses and occupying them. They pay the construction cost and say the land belongs to God. How could this be without an official help from the gov.
I am reguler viewer of Rahim Ullah Yousafzai artical in News as will in Central asis Online, I should rank this peace as master work of writer. the way the infromation flows is remarable, please to readers. i really appriciate the Central Ais online to have such an experts on the issues.