Kyrgyz security services say wanted terrorist leader arrested
12 September 2007 09:38
Kyrgyz security services said Tuesday that an Uzbek citizen wanted for allegedly plotting terror attacks in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan has been arrested.
Law enforcement agents detained Zhamaldin Abdumazhidov as he tried to detonate a grenade in the southwestern Jalalabad region on Aug. 22, the State Committee for National Security said in a statement. There was no explanation for why the committee waited nearly three weeks to make the announcement.
Abdumazhidov, 28, allegedly was involved in the killing of a police officer in 2006 and a bombing of a newspaper's offices in May, and he allegedly recruited members for an underground terror gang and helped them train at foreign terrorist training camps, the committee said.
No further details were released.
Kyrgyzstan, like other poor ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, faces a growing threat from a disgruntled populace and from radical Islamic groups.
A group of alleged Islamic militants attacked Tajik and Kyrgyz border posts in May 2006, breaking through into Kyrgyz territory and killing nine people.
That attack prompted Kyrgyz authorities to launch a wide-ranging security sweep in southern regions, killing eight people and arresting dozens of alleged Islamic radicals, including members of the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
The International Herald Tribune
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