Russia’s subway bombing, carried out by a suspected Kyrgyz-born Russian citizen, has again cast concerns on worldwide terrorism associated with the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan.

Monday’s attack in St. Petersburg follows terror incidents in recent years, like the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings — carried out by Chechens who grew up in Kyrgyzstan — and an Istanbul airport attack last June in which one suspect was Kyrgyz.

Although Russian officials suspect that alleged attacker Akbarzhon Dzhalilov had no links to the Islamic State group, there is speculation among investigators that the bombing was in retaliation for Russia’s military involvement in Syria’s civil war, including attacks on IS targets in Syria, according to Russian media.

Along with neighboring Central Asian countries, the landlocked state of six million people has been a breeding ground for terrorists who have joined Islamic State and other militant groups on the battlegrounds of Iraq and Syria, analysts say.

According to government statistics and groups that monitor terror, more than 500 people — including 121 women — have left Kyrgyzstan to fight in Syria and Iraq since 2014. Dozens have returned in recent months as losses for IS mount. Their growing presence has caused concern for the government in Bishkek, the capital of the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as Russia and the West.

‘Strong network’

“Extremist groups are very active in Kyrgyzstan and are well organized,” Begijon Ahmedov, a Bishkek-based security analyst, told VOA. “They have built a strong network and faced no serious pressure from authorities until recently.”

Analysts say radical groups surfaced in many parts of Kyrgyzstan — particularly in the Osh region, Dzhalilov’s birthplace — after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Osh, the second-largest city in the country, is considered a hub for radical groups. Many of the groups have been influenced by the IS-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which fought alongside the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Despite the Kyrgyz government’s crackdown on IS-linked groups — and designating IS as a terrorist group in March 2015 — IS affiliates have been luring Kyrgyz youths to join their cause and facilitate their travel to Syria and Iraq.

“They are involved in the recruitment of Kyrgyz citizens and the transfer of recruits to the Syria-Iraq zone to fight alongside IS,” the prosecutor’s office in Osh said in a court filing in 2015. “Later they can return home and conduct illegal activities.”

The IS-linked network has also reportedly found sympathizers among Kyrgyzstan’s elites.

Maksat Kunakunov, a former Kyrgyz lawmaker, was arrested for allegedly supplying weapons to IS-linked militants in July 2015. Kunakunov represented the Ak-Jol, which was founded by former President Kurmanbek Bakiev and was the ruling party when Bakiev’s government was toppled by popular anti-government protests in 2010.

The extremists are reportedly using the internet to spread their ideology and lure people into their ranks. They use social media to disseminate their propaganda videos.

“Internet is barely controlled by the government to counter extremism online presence,” analyst Ahmedov said. “Extremist groups sell their ideas freely online and through local known social media platforms. This network has developed elements needed to turn ordinary citizens into extremism by indoctrinating them with their own radical ideas.”

Finding a foothold

IS-linked groups have been blamed for carrying out attacks in Kyrgyzstan.

In September, a suicide bombing targeted the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek. Experts believed the attack was carried out by Muslim separatist Uighurs — a Turkic-speaking ethnic majority in northwest China’s Xinjiang province that claims to be deprived of its rights in the mainland. A large number of Uighur militants have reportedly joined rebel and extremist groups in Syria, including IS.

Analysts say a variety of social and economic reasons have helped the extremists find a foothold in the country.

The collapse of the communist Soviet Union left many Central Asian states, including Kyrgyzstan, facing a lack of identity. Many embraced Islam. In their quest for information and religious knowledge, some fell prey to extremist groups, which were ready to fill that gap.

“IS supporters in Central Asia appear to mostly be young migrant laborers who have little or no background in Islam as a religion, but embrace Islam as an identity that offers solidarity,” said Noah Tucker, an associate professor for Central Asia at George Washington University.

A sluggish economy and lack of education also appears to influence Kyrgyz people to join IS.

“A sense of belonging and an explanation for economic hardship and discrimination that they experience is a very strong drive for them to join IS, which depicted to them the caliphate as a utopia,” Tatyana Dronzina, a lecturer at the Political Science Department of Sofia University, Bulgaria, told VOA.

Analysts say the expanding network of Islamists in Kyrgyzstan faced no obstacles until 2015 when Nurlan Motuyev, a self-styled religious leader, criticized President Almazbek Atambayev and called for his resignation.

The cleric also called for the creation of a new government based on Sharia — or the law of Islam — before he was arrested by Kyrgyz authorities in March 2015.
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Officials in southern Afghanistan said an overnight airstrike killed at least 22 Taliban insurgents, including 18 would-be suicide bombers.

Regional corps commander Lieutenant General Daud Shah Wafadar told VOA on Tuesday that the strike had targeted a major training center in Shamulzayi district of troubled Zabul province.

He said three Pakistani trainers and the head of the Taliban’s so-called provincial military commission were also among those killed. The general added that bombers trained at the center had been responsible for numerous deadly attacks in southern Afghan provinces.

Taliban officials have not yet responded to claims about whether the facility struck was one that they used.

The Afghan Air Force used A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft in the operation, according to officials.

The United States has so far delivered 12 A-29s to Afghanistan, including four sent last month to try to boost close-air attack capabilities of Afghan forces for the 2017 fighting season.

Border crossing

The Afghan district where Monday night’s airstrike occurred borders Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province. Afghan officials maintain Shamulzayi serves as a key route for insurgents entering from the neighboring country.  Atta Jan Haqbayan, head of Zabul’s provincial council, told VOA that the militants control a large portion of the district and have created a border checkpoint.

The insurgents pass through Shamalzai as they bring their wounded fighters into Pakistan for treatment, according to Afghan government and media reports.

In addition to an active Taliban presence across Zabul province, the Islamic State group is also reportedly present there. The provincial governor last year said IS was getting stronger and, in some areas, had taken over rival Taliban positions.

Central Asian militants, including members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), have been in the province since 2007 and fought alongside the Taliban against the Afghan government. But the militants pledged allegiance to IS after the Taliban announced its disassociation with international terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, and abandoned plans to support the spread of terrorist activities into central Asia.

‘Hotline’ conversation

Hours after he shared details of the successful airstrike with media, Wafadar spoke by phone to his Pakistani counterpart, Lieutenant General Amir Riaz.

While Afghan officials have not released any details, the Pakistan military said that it was the first “hotline communication” between the two commanders.

“Both sides discussed issues related to Pak-Afghan border, expressed satisfaction over establishment of hotline communication and vowed to continue such interactions in future,” according to the media wing of the Pakistan army.

The southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, which are mostly controlled by the Taliban, also border Baluchistan. Afghan officials alleged the Pakistani province hosts Taliban leaders and sanctuaries. The allegations and counterallegations have strained relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, though both sides deny allowing terrorists to use their territory for cross-border attacks.
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A new poll released Tuesday shows Americans’ attitudes toward China are improving over years past, before a planned meeting later this week between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

The timing of the poll’s release appears to be good news for Xi, whose visit coincides with the highest U.S. China favorability rating since 2011.  According to the Pew Research Center poll, 44 percent of Americans say they view China favorably, up from 37 percent last year.

Between 2012 and 2016, the approval rating hovered between 37 and 38 percent.

According to the report accompanying the poll, “these shifts in views of China are taking place amid improving assessments of the U.S. economy.”  It said the number of Americans who are concerned about the large amount of U.S. debt held by China and the number of jobs lost to China has dropped significantly since 2012.

According to the Pew report, 78 percent of Americans saw the large amount of debt as a serious problem in 2012.  In 2017 that number dropped to 60 percent.  Similarly, 61 percent saw the trade deficit as a serious problem in 2012, compared to 44 percent in 2017.

The trade deficits and job losses to China played a large role in Trump’s run for president, he repeatedly accused China of killing U.S. jobs while using its debt holdings to bolster its own economy.

Trump has predicted the talks with Xi will be difficult, due to the massive trade deficit with China.  He’s also threatened to use the crucial U.S.-China trade ties to put pressure on China to do more to rein in North Korea.

In an interview with the Financial Times Sunday, he said if China doesn’t solve the problem, “we will.”

The poll showed Americans are less threatened today China’s military strength than they are by China’s economic powers.  Fifty-two percent of Americans said they were more concerned about China’s economy, compared to 36 percent who said they were more concerned about the country’s military strength.

It also showed a clear division between older Americans, who were more likely to view China unfavorably, and younger Americans.  According to the Pew poll, 57 percent of 18-29 year-olds view China favorably, while 37 percent hold a negative view of the country.

Among those above 50 years old, 36 percent view China favorably, while 55 percent view the country negatively.

The poll was conducted between February 16 and March 15.  Pew Research estimates its margin of error at three percentage points.
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With China’s preferred candidate selected as Hong Kong’s next chief executive, another blow to the morale of the city’s democracy activists, their young leaders are taking a page from Beijing’s playbook and preparing for a long battle.

At the leafy campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, there is little sign of the fervor that drove thousands of students to stage the Umbrella Movement street protests that brought parts of the city to a standstill for months in 2014.

“We still all care about Hong Kong’s social issues, democracy, Beijing’s interference,” said Ceci Chow, a third-year nursing student, as she waited on campus beside a bronze statue of the ‘goddess of democracy’. But she concedes there might not be the same “driving force” for action.

Student union leaders like Cheryl Chu and Thomas Lee agree that the commitment is still there, but they doubt mass protests are the way to go, for now.

The Umbrella Movement ultimately failed to persuade Beijing to grant full democracy in elections for Chief Executive, so Carrie Lam will assume the post in July thanks to the backing last month of an electoral college packed with mostly Beijing loyalists.

In the run-up to Lam’s victory, student leaders eschewed public protests and opted instead to use social media, leaflets and street booths to present their case that the election was undemocratic.

“We need to look further in future, and look at how to slowly make the people close to us change a little. Only then will we feel that we can achieve something tangible in future,” said Lee.

Many activist leaders have been weighed down by legal battles. One day after Lam’s selection, nine were charged with public nuisance offences for their part in the protests, and more arrests could follow.

Victories in last September’s elections to the city’s legislature, when one in five voters backed younger candidates including Umbrella Movement leaders and self-determination advocates, rapidly turned sour when two newly elected legislators were disqualified.   Beijing and a local court ruled Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching had not taken their oaths properly after inserting a dig at China.

The government has since sought to disqualify four more pro-democracy lawmakers for invalid oaths, while two others charged for inciting the Umbrella protests might be removed if they are jailed for over a month.

‘Never rest’

For some young people like Derek Lam, 23, a theology student who has been arrested five times in two years for various protests, there is a financial cost to their activism.

Lam has not been convicted, but says his high-profile arrests mean he now struggles to find work and might not be able to graduate if he fails to pay his half-year school fee of HK$24,000 (US$3,090).

But the setbacks have not deterred him.

“The Chinese Communist Party will never rest, so we can’t rest as well … Luckily, we have 30 years, and after 30 years our opponents will not be the people who are in power now, but people our age. So a lot depends on how we influence our peers now.”

This July, on the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China from British rule, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the city. But while many activists are appalled by what they see as a gradual ratcheting up of Chinese control during the 50-year period of transitional autonomy agreed with Britain, they are not expecting a protest on the scale of 2014.

“The fight for democracy doesn’t just take place on the streets,” said Joshua Wong, the public face of the Umbrella Movement, who was just 17 when the protests began. “And the fight for Hong Kong’s autonomy doesn’t take place in years. We are talking about a battle of 20, 30 years.”

The challenge for Beijing is that many of Hong Kong’s young people, rather than growing to accept China’s growing role in the city’s affairs, have become further estranged from the mainland and are increasingly warming to a localism movement that puts the city’s autonomy, interests and culture first.

“The youths in Hong Kong are now more eager to step up and say we’re Hong Kongers, we love Hong Kong and distinguish ourselves from the Chinese. There is a very strong Hong Kong identity, and this will not waver,” said Wong Ching-tak, 20, the president of the University of Hong Kong’s Student Union.

Disqualified legislators Leung and Yau hope that identity will mobilize supporters when the next battleground issue crops up.

“There will be a last war … There will be a very large-scale social movement that emerges,” Leung said. “And it will determine whether there’s still a road ahead for Hong Kong as we know it, or not.”
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Pakistan resumed the repatriation of Afghan refugees on Monday, sending nearly 1,200 people back across the heavily guarded northern Torkham border, an official at the United Nation’s refugee body said.

Pakistan is home to the world’s second largest refugee population, with a total of 2.5 million Afghans living there.

Many have been in Pakistan since the Soviet invasion in 1979.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated significantly in recent years. Kabul and Islamabad blame each other for terrorist attacks on either side of the border.

After a series of attacks in Pakistan left more than 130 people dead in February, Islamabad shut down its border crossings with Afghanistan and began planning to build a fence along the 2,500-km (1,500-mile) border.

Pakistan denies charges of harassment

Human Rights Watch has accused the U.N. of allowing Pakistan to forcibly evict Afghan refugees in violation of international law. Rights activists say they expect little change this year in either Pakistani policies or the inability of the Afghan government and aid groups to support the tide.

Pakistan denies systematic harassment of the refugees by its authorities. It claims the country has demonstrated great generosity in hosting the Afghans despite its own economic limitations. The Afghans going home now are leaving voluntarily, it says.

However, the Afghans complain about constant harassment and a lack of citizenship rights for those who have spent decades living and working in Pakistan.

After over 30 years, family returns to Afghanistan

“My family moved to Pakistan in the early ’80s,” said Abdul Wahab, who lived in Islamabad for more than 30 years. “My father sold carpets and operated a successful shop. He made sure he always paid his taxes. But we could not have a bank account or own property.”

Despite growing up in Pakistan, Wahab said, the weight of being a second-class citizen was too much to bear. In early 2016, before Pakistan began sending back Afghan refugees, Wahab packed up his carpets and moved the business back to Kabul.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed that voluntary returns resumed after a suspension due to winter weather.

Asked whether Pakistan’s hard-handed approach toward Afghans living within its borders for nearly 40 years had spurred the exodus, UNHCR representative Samad Khan said the reasons were varied.

“Some move for economic purposes or to unite with their families and others are moving due to border restrictions which have impacted their families,” he said.

Afghan government continues to struggle

According to Khan, 370,000 refugees volunteered to return in 2016 after Pakistan announced new repatriation plans. Human Rights Watch estimates another 200,000 undocumented refugees were shipped back to Afghanistan, where conflict and economic crisis have left the government struggling to maintain basic living standards

“We have sent back 194 families today and they are all voluntary returnees who registered for return,” Khan said.

A UNHCR spokeswoman in Geneva said officials do not know how many refugees may return to Afghanistan this year, but that so far around 24,000 Afghans in Pakistan have “expressed an interest” in returning in April and May.
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will chair a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the North Korea nuclear issue later this month.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters Monday that Tillerson’s briefing to member states will take place April 28 — well after this week’s summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida.

“I think a lot is going to depend on what happens between now and the end of the month,” Haley said at a news conference marking the U.S. assumption of the U.N. Security Council presidency for April. “Because with the conversations we are having and the decisions China makes, that will really spell out where at least the U.S. wants to go.”

Haley said the two leaders’ summit “will be very, very important” on a number of levels, but particularly on the issue of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The rogue nation has stepped up its ballistic missile tests and conducted five nuclear tests in the past decade. Experts say a sixth nuclear test could happen soon.

“I think the United States has seen China for 25-plus years say that they are concerned about North Korea, but we haven’t seen them act like they are concerned about North Korea,” Haley said. “I think this administration wants to see them act, and I think they are going to pressure them to do that.”

She said China hopefully will respond favorably. “That’s the goal of this weekend, is to make sure that China shows that they are willing to act on North Korea because we know at the end of the day, the only one that North Korea is really going to respond to is China,” Haley said.

In an interview with London’s Financial Times, Trump said that if China is not going to solve the problem of North Korea, “we will.”

“China has a great influence over North Korea,” he told the newspaper. “And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t … and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone.”

Haley said the discussions between presidents Trump and Xi also will cover economic issues, but that “the way that the weekend will go will very much depend on how that conversation with North Korea is.”

“The president has made it very clear that he needs to see actions from China,” she said.
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