Terror Attacks Draw Attention to Islamic Fundamentalist Party

April 2, 2004

Source: The Washington Times

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20040401-104946-9718r.htm

On April 2, 2004 The Washington Times reported, "A series of suicide bombings and attacks on security forces that have rocked Uzbekistan this week has focused new attention on a secretive, anti-American Islamic fundamentalist party that aims to create a Muslim superstate based on strict Koranic law. But the crackdown on Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami by the authoritarian government of President Islam Karimov also has raised fresh questions about whether the harsh treatment has boosted support for Islamist militants in Uzbekistan and across the strategic Central Asian region. Uzbek Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov, speaking with reporters yesterday in the capital, Tashkent, for the first time raised the possibility that Hizb ut-Tahrir, which says it is nonviolent, had worked with al Qaeda in the attacks that have killed at least 44 persons since Sunday...The party, whose name means the 'party of Islamic liberation,' has been the target of harsh repression by Mr. Karimov, who provided crucial help for the U.S.-led war in neighboring Afghanistan."