Juma Namangani
Juma Namangani | |
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Birth name | Jumaboi Ahmadjonovich Khodjiyev |
Nickname(s) | Jumma Hakim, Jumma Kasimov, Tojiboy Afghanistan |
Allegiance |
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Wars |
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Jumaboi Ahmadjonovich Khodjiyev (1968 or 1969 – November 2001), better known by the
Biography
Namangani was born in Namangan, located in the Fergana Valley, in 1968[3] or 1969.[4] He fought in the Soviet–Afghan War as a paratrooper in the Soviet Army, into which he had been conscripted in the late 1980s.[3] Following the war, he returned to Namangan. There, he associated with local Islamists of the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) and the local Islamic revolutionary party Adolat (English: Justice), including Tohir Yoʻldosh, a mullah who sought the imposition of Sharia (Islamic law) in Uzbekistan.[3] Together with Yoʻldosh, he helped found the Islamic organization Tovba (English: Generation).[5]
Tajikistani Civil War
Namangani fled to southern
With support from the IRP, which supplied
During the Civil War, Namangani was an effective commander due to his first-hand knowledge of both Soviet Army and Afghan Mujahideen tactics,[5] which were practised by the Tajikistani military and Russian forces based in the country. According to various IRP leaders, Namangani was "a tough disciplinarian and good speaker who could mobilize people" and held the loyalty of his fighters; however, he was also described to be "erratic, temperamental, and authoritarian", and frequently ignored orders from the party's political leadership.[3]
He is essentially a guerrilla leader, not an Islamic scholar. He is a good person but not a deep person or intellectual in any way, and he has been shaped by his own military and political experiences rather than by Islamic ideology, but he hates the Uzbek government—that is what motivates him above all. In a way, he is a leader by default, because no other leader is willing to take such risks to oppose Karimov.
— Moheyuddin Kabir, Islamic Renaissance Party[3]
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
In August 1998,[6] Namangani and Yoʻldosh founded the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) with the aim of creating a militant Islamic opposition to Karimov in Uzbekistan.[3] Yoʻldosh traveled to Afghanistan to establish contacts with the Taliban and al-Qaeda but Namangani remained in Tajikistan. In the summer of 1999, the IMU infiltrated southern Kyrgyzstan, near Osh and later Batken, and seized Kyrgyz and foreign hostages, including a major general and four Japanese geologists, sparking clashes with the Kyrgyz Army. As winter approached, the IMU retreated to the Tavildara Valley.[3] Uyghurs, Chechens, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and other ethnic groups flocked to serve under IMU leader Juma Namangani.[7]
These raids had a major impact in Central Asia, and resulted in considerable international pressure on Tajikistan, not least from Karimov, to expel the IMU from its base in the Tavildara Valley. The IRP persuaded their former ally Namangani to leave in late 1999, and in November approximately three hundred IMU fighters, and their families, were escorted by Russian troops to the border with Afghanistan, where they were welcomed by the Taliban and lodged in
In July 2000, Namangani returned to the Tavildara Valley with several hundred fighters, and from there covertly deployed his fighters into Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Namangani withdrew to the IMU's base in Mazar-i-Sharif in October 2000. At the time, he commanded a capable, multinational force of 2,000 Kyrgyz, Tajik, Uzbek,
The IMU resumed offensive operations in the summer of 2001, with locally based
Death
Namangani was reportedly killed in an airstrike[11] in Afghanistan in November 2001.[12] Rumors of his death started in mid-November 2001 but were inconsistent about the circumstances, location and timing.[3] General Abdul Rashid (Abdurashid) Dustum of the Northern Alliance claimed Namangani died during fighting for the city of Kunduz.[13] The Taliban, however, claimed he died in an airstrike in or near Kabul, the Afghan capital, and was buried secretly in Logar Province.[14] Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir reported that Namangani died on 6 November 2001 in Mazar-i-Sharif and was eulogised, together with Mohammed Atef, in a speech by Osama bin Laden on 8 November 2001.[15]
In late December, in a joint press conference with Karimov, Rahmon claimed having "accurate and reliable information" of Namangani's death. General Tommy Franks, who led the American invasion of Afghanistan, stated in a press conference in Tashkent on 24 January 2002 that "the information that I have reflects that Namangani is dead",[16] and in a later conference (again in Tashkent) on 23 August 2002 expressed that "the information that ... we've had for some time indicates that he probably is not still alive".[17] However, a report by the National Security Council of Kyrgyzstan in July 2002 stated that Namangani "had recovered from wounds sustained the previous winter and was gathering forces in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan".[10]
References
- ISBN 978-0-7656-8284-0.
- JSTOR 40209731.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rashid, Ahmed (14 January 2002). "They're Only Sleeping: Why militant Islamicists in Central Asia aren't going to go away". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 24 January 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ISBN 9780199861255. Archivedfrom the original on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
- ^ a b c Pannier, Bruce (17 August 2010). "IMU Announces Longtime Leader Dead, Names Successor". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Archived from the original on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
- ^ "Pakistan's 'fanatical' Uzbek militants". BBC News. 11 June 2014. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
- ^ Rashid, Ahmed (14 January 2002). "They're Only Sleeping: Why militant Islamicists in Central Asia aren't going to go away". The New Yorker.
- ^ Office of the Coordinator of Counterterrorism (30 April 2001). "Eurasia Overview". Patterns of Global Terrorism: 2000. United States Department of State. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- ^ a b Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (23 February 2001). "Uzbekistan" (PDF). Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2000. United States Department of State. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Curtis, Glenn E. (October 2002). "Involvement of Russian Organized Crime Syndicates, Criminal Elements in the Russian Military, and Regional Terrorist Groups in Narcotics Trafficking in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Chechnya" (PDF). Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- Boucher, Richard (25 September 2002). "Redesignation of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan as a Foreign Terrorist Organization" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: United States Department of State. Archivedfrom the original on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- ^ Donovan, Jeffrey (30 October 2003). "U.S.: Diplomat Sees Growing Terrorism Challenge In Central Asia". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ^ "Bin Laden's Assistant Juma Namangani Killed In Afghanistan". Pravda.ru. 19 November 2001. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- ^ "Bin Laden's Associate Juma Namangani Killed, Assert Taleban". Pravda.ru. 20 November 2001. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- Canada Free Press. Archivedfrom the original on 7 February 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ^ "Head of U.S. Central Command to Visit Uzbekistan" (press release). United States Department of State. 25 January 2002. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- ^ "Transcript: Franks Thanks Uzbekistan for Anti-Terror Efforts, Saving 'Many Lives'" (press release). United States Department of State. 23 August 2002. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.