Suicide Terrorism - Articles

Hizb-ut-Tahrir-al-Islami: Profile of a New Suicide Terror in Central Asia

Three well-coordinated suicide attacks took place in Uzbekistan capital Tashkent on 30 July 2004, killing four local Uzbek guards and injuring eight others. The attacks were targeted on the embassies of United States and Israel and the chief of the prosecutor's office in the capital. Fifteen suspects mostly members of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir-al-Islami (HT) with alleged links to al-Qaeda were being tried for first ever suicide bomb attacks in Central Asian region and subsequent wave of violence during March-April 2004 that left at least 47 people dead. Islamic Holy War Group took responsibility for these attacks and also claimed that "martyrdom operations carried out by the group will not stop. They are directed against the injustice of the apostate government and in support of our Muslim brethren in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) and other Islamic countries ruled by apostates."

Uzbek President Islam Karimov indicated the involvement of two outlawed groups, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT). Earlier, Uzbekistan authorities had blamed Hizb-ut-Tahrir for previous bombing incidents in March 2004 and arrested its members. It was reportedly spreading into the other Central Asian republics and in the Russian region and engaged in vigorous recruitment. Observers also contend that al-Qaeda might have executed this attack through HT terrorists.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir-al-Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation), believed to be headquartered at Birmingham in Great Britain is an emerging Islamist fundamentalist group in Central Asia. Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani al Falastini founded the Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Jordanian occupied East Jerusalem in 1953, with the aim of representing the universal Caliphate embracing all Islamic countries. It appeared for the first time in Central Asia after the collapse of Soviet Union, initially in the Ferghana valley in Uzbekistan (in early 1990's), and then in neighbouring Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the late 1990s. HT's goal is jihad against America and other 'Colonial' powers and replacement of existing political system in the respective countries with a 'righteous' Caliphate (Khilafah in Arabic), a theocratic Islamic state based on the Shari'a (religious Islamic law), similar to the state which existed during Prophet Mohammad. Unlike other similar Islamist fundamentalist groups, Hizb-ut-Tahrir makes no preference among the various schools of Islam, which makes it more popular among the commoners and thus it recruits new members for its ranks irrespective of differences among the various tendencies within Islam.

Hizb activists have been operating clandestinely in over 40 countries around the world. It is believed that the HT has as many as 10,000 members in Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Kazakstan, and now in Ural-Volga region of Russia as well. Analysts believe that anti-state feeling alone could not feed for the successful operations of these groups, but there must be a strong patron for these groups. HT has been targeting the economically, politically and socially deprived sections of the society and unemployed and frustrated youths in the region. Apart from Uzbekistan, HT is now reportedly gaining a strong base in northern Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan. The intelligence sources have been claiming that sources of funds, their external linkages and their operational strategies are ambiguous at this moment.

An investigative report from Moskovskii Komsomolets in July says "five students form a unit or 'Halqa', where members of one group do not know others and do not talk to them." Even the teachers themselves are subordinate to higher-ranking members and this goes all the way up to the Amir [commander] of the caliphate in Jordan. Its structure parallels the army. Observers believe that HT had started pursuing the path of violence due to repressive measures against this group and the overwhelming pro-US policy of the governments in Central Asia.

Russia declared Hizb-ut-Tahrir a criminal organization in 1999 and it was banned after detecting links with the Chechen terrorists in Russian territory. On 9 June 2003, the FSB announced the mass arrest of 121 members of HT in its southern region. In 2001, the head of the anti-terrorism center of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Major Gen Milnikov, declared Hizb-ut-Tahrir to be an international terrorist organization, a threat not only to Russia but also to all of the CIS.

In March 2004, chiefs of security forces of four Central Asian republics, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan and Tajikistan formed a permanent joint working group to combat radical regional groups such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) etc. HT, a transnational organization with fundamentalist ideas prevalent in the strategically important region would be used as operational hand for the 'International Islamist Terrorists' to target pro-US establishments in this region. HT has won the support of thousands of young people, who are committed to an idea of overthrowing the region's governments and establishing an Islamic system. Persecution of HT members alone will not solve the problem; instead, it would aggravate the anti-state feeling more.