Chaos rules in Uzbek city as mob protests detention
Tashkent, Uzbekistan Thousands of people, many of them armed, took to the streets of an eastern Uzbek city today, attacking a prison and freeing the inmates to protest the detention of prominent businessmen on charges of Islamic extremism, witnesses said.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov and other leaders immediately rushed to Andijan, where witnesses reported chaos in the streets. The city 300 miles east of Tashkent near the Kyrgyz border has been the scene of growing unrest in recent weeks.
The 23 defendants are charged with anti-constitutional activity and forming a criminal and extremist organization, but rights activists say the case is part of a broad government crackdown on religious dissent.
Valijon Atakhonjonov, the brother of one of the accused, said security forces fired shots in the air as thousands of people massed in front of the local administration building.
“The people have risen,” he said by telephone.
Armed demonstrators went to a prison to free inmates overnight, Atakhonjonov said, but he could not confirm reports that the crowd had attacked an army garrison as well.
On Wednesday several thousand people turned out to protest the allegations against the men, who have been on trial since early February on charges of being Islamic extremists. It was one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in the ex-Soviet republic.
Radical Islam was a bugaboo for the Soviet Union long before its collapse and was partly behind Moscow’s decision to invade Afghanistan in the last days of 1979. The movement continues to bedevil Central Asian leaders, especially in neighboring Uzbekistan, where deep-rooted radical groups have been accused of a series of bombings and militant incursions.
Thousands of Muslims have been jailed in Uzbekistan over the past few years in a government campaign that critics say has affected many innocent believers and only inflamed anger against Karimov’s harsh rule.
Uzbekistan emerged as a key U.S. ally after the Sept. 11 attacks, and hosts hundreds of U.S. troops.
Grenade kills 2, injures 57
Srinagar, India A grenade thrown by suspected Islamic rebels exploded outside a school in India’s portion of Kashmir on Thursday, killing two women and wounding at least 57 people, many of them schoolchildren and their parents, police said.
The grenade was apparently thrown at a passing vehicle of India’s Border Security Force but missed its target and exploded outside the school in central Srinagar, police officer Mohammed Hasib said.
The explosion occurred just as hundreds of children were leaving the school, with dozens of parents waiting outside.
Two women died of their injuries in the city’s main hospital, Reyaz Ahmad, a doctor at the hospital said, adding that two boys were in a critical condition.
The explosion wounded at least 57 people including two paramilitary soldiers, 13 schoolchildren, three teachers and 39 other civilians. There was chaos at the scene of the explosion as students fled and terrified parents searched for their children.
U.S. wants investigation of incident
Dhaka, Bangladesh A senior U.S. official asked the Bangladeshi government Thursday to fully investigation the January grenade attack on a political rally that killed five opposition members and wounded 100 people.
The dead in the Jan. 27 attack on the opposition rally included the former finance minister, who had moved into the opposition. The opposition Awami League blamed the government for the grenade attack 75 miles northeast of Dhaka.
A similar attack in Dhaka last August killed 21 people and wounded more than 300. The government denied involvement and condemned the attack – but failed to make any headway in catching those responsible.
Bush pushes for CAFTA agreement
Washington President Bush tried Thursday to break congressional resistance to a free-trade agreement with Central American nations by arguing that open markets will help improve security and promote freedom in the Western hemisphere.
Bush welcomed the presidents of the Dominican Republic and the five Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to the White House for a private Oval Office meeting and a public show of unity in the Rose Garden.
Bush signed the pact last May, but it needs the approval of Congress. The agreement, known as CAFTA, is supported by business groups who say it will open up new markets for U.S. exporters. But many labor, human rights and immigration groups are working equally hard to defeat it because they say it will do little to correct abuses of workers and the environment.
Ex-Islamic charity officials indicted
Boston Two former officers of an Islamic charity were indicted on federal charges accusing them of lying to authorities investigating the charity’s alleged ties to terrorist organizations.
Emadeddin Muntasser, the former head of Care International, and Muhammed Mubayyid, the group’s former treasurer, were arrested Thursday following their Wednesday indictment on charges of concealing information from federal agencies, conspiring to defraud the United States, and making false statements to the FBI. The charity is now defunct.
“Organizations that conceal their true activities to abuse our tax laws, and in this case fund their support of the mujahideen and jihad, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan.
The indictment was disclosed the same day Muntasser was scheduled to have a hearing in federal court on his application for U.S. citizenship. U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel held off on ruling on Muntasser’s application for citizenship.
Muntasser, 40, the owner of the Logan Furniture chain and a Libyan national, was a founding president of the Boston-based charity Care International.
Mubayyid, 40, Care’s treasurer, has been employed by a Quincy software firm that was in the news two years ago after federal agent searched its offices as part of an investigation into funding of terrorist groups. No charges were ever brought against the software company or its officers.