New documentary evidence points to the growing influence of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in the north. The group has relations with al Qaeda and Taleban in Kunduz and Baghlan provinces.
New documentary evidence points to the growing influence of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in the north. The group has relations with al Qaeda and Taleban in Kunduz and Baghlan provinces. Taleban would be trying to show themselves as not just a Pashtun movement.Ten years ago the two provinces were strongholds of the Taleban in their fight against the Northern Alliance. Forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud controlled adjoining Takhar. But now it seems the three provinces are turning troublesome for the Afghan government.
On April 11, the government announced that ISAF has killed three armed members of the Islamic Movement in Baghlan’s Burka district, and arrested two members.
Baghlan Police Commander Asadullah Sherzad confirmed the men were members of the Islamic Movement. So also did provincial council members and residents of Burka district. Qudratullah, a resident of the area and member of Baghlan provincial council, spoke to Killid.
ISAF has also confirmed that a joint operation with Afghan forces was launched against the deputy commander of the Islamic Movement, the second highest member of the group. The unidentified commander has been described as being in charge of deputing gunmen for abducting and killing Afghan government authorities.
Meanwhile, ISAF said it had arrested two armed opponents in Sholgara district, Balkh province. On the same day, Kunduz border police arrested two Kirgiz nationals for illegal entry.
Border troubles
District governor of Imam Sahib Amanuddin Quraishi said the men identified as Ali Sher and Salahudin were residents of Osh city, Kirghizstan. “They were entering Afghanistan with border maps and other instruments,” he said. The two have been sent to the custody of Central Commandment of Northern Zone Border Police.
Three days earlier, Juma Khan, an important member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was killed in an ISAF raid in Ishkamesh district, Takhar. His accomplice who was in charge of weapons transfers was arrested.
Last year in February, a 30-year-old Kazak national, Mohammad Yaqub, was arrested by security forces in Imam Saheb district with maps, propaganda material, and a mobile phone with a foreign SIM card. Security officials accused him of links with the Islamic Movement, and said he had infiltrated the country with the intention of mounting attacks on sensitive targets.
Juma Namangani founded the Islamic Movement in Uzbekistan during the years of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Banned by the government its members scattered in different countries in the region including Afghanistan.
After Juma Namangani was killed in 2001, Tahir Yoldash took over the leadership. Yoldash came to Afghanistan after the rise of the mujahedin to power. He was active in the tribal areas located between Afghanistan and Pakistan. NATO forces counted him as an important member of al Qaeda and sought to kill him. He was assassinated four years ago in a Drone strike by the US in northern Waziristan.
There has been little news of the Islamic Movement until the recent killings and arrest of members, which has come as a great surprise for the government and international forces based in Afghanistan, says political observer Wahid Muzhda. The Taleban, he believes, has a hand in the resurgence of the Islamic Movement. They are trying to show themselves as not just a Pashtun movement by enlisting other armed struggles like the Islamic Movement, he claims. “As far as I know the Islamist Movement as well as the armed fighters of Hezb Islami (of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) are entrenched in the North and Taleban in the south.”
He says the Taleban and Islamic Movement were close during the Taleban regime. “They (Taleban) were trying to use Tahir Yoldash against the influence of General (Rashid) Dostum, and they were successful in their efforts because Yoldash had a good influence in the north of Afghanistan,” he asserts.
Widening network
Muzhda believes the Taleban still have many big Uzbek commanders in the north, and the war there will increase. “Right now, different warriors have been settled in Baghlan, and though there were wars between Hezb Islami and Taleban last year they seems to be united now.”
A report by Al Jazeera, which was broadcast by Radio Azadi on April 11, says the Taleban have been able to establish a presence through its partners in the Islamic movement.
In an interview with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera, General Baba Jan, commander of 303 Pamir Zone, says the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has become stronger in the north in the past two years.
A website called Tand (fresh – tand.com) published in Kabul quoted the US-based Long War Journal saying NATO forces have increased attacks on the Islamic Movement in the run up to their exit from Afghanistan.
The report says operations were launched in the first three months of 2012 – three of these from north-east Afghanistan.
Moreover, Tand quotes the Long War Journal saying the attacks have doubled against the Islamic Movement in the first three months of 2013.
General Zalmai Wesa, commander of the 209th ANA Corps, says the Islamic Movement is the main target of the Special Forces. An Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the TV channel, “This is strange that after 10 years the people whose fathers and brothers had fought bravely against the Taleban in Takhar are joining Taleban or Islamic Movement.”
