PESHAWAR, Aug 10: A security agency here has detained a Turkman leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan comprising militants from the Muslim Central Asian Republics in the restive North Waziristan tribal region.
The man in his late 20s has been detained along with his wife. Both would be deported to their native Turkmenistan, officials told Dawn.
Officials said that Abdur Raheem, 28, from Ashgabad had admitted to training militants from the Central Asian republics including Uzbeks, Khazaks, Turkmen and Tajiks at a training camp run by an IMU offshoot Islamic Jihad Group (IJG).
Raheem, who used different names including Qasem and Abdul Kareem, said the training facility had to be relocated frequently due to security situation and military operations and the last course was conducted at Degan in North Waziristan. “He is an expert at handling explosives”, the official said.
The Turkman militant said he had initially trained at Al- Qaeda-operated Al Farooq training camp in Khost in southeastern Afghanistan for three months and later moved to Takkhar in northern Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.
According to investigators, Raheem returned to receive further training at Khardhand or Khaldan as the Arabs used to call it and had gone back to Takkhar in 2001 to fight under the command of the IMU leader Late Juma Nimanghani.
The IMU leader was killed in an aerial bombing when the US invaded Afghanistan forcing Raheem and scores of other militants drawn largely from the central Asian republics of Uzbekistan to flee to the relative safety of Pakistan’s tribal regions.
Investigators believe that the group led by Mr Yaldashev comprises largely of fellow Uzbeks but also include Khazaks, Turkmen and some Tajiks. Another relatively smaller group called the IJG led by a young Uzbek known as Mansur Sohail is operating in North Waziristan.
