BISHKEK. Feb 13 (Interfax) - Thirty occurrences of the recruitment of fighters for the Syria war have been exposed in southern Kyrgyzstan in the past ten days alone, deputy head of the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry's Tenth Main Department Raim Salimov said.
"Thirty recruitment attempts were uncovered in the preventive operations in the Kara-Suu district of the Osh region over the past ten days," Salimov said.
"Indeed, the February 10 detention of the imam of a major mosque of the Kara-Suu district was a high-profile event. However, a number of other people related to the activity of this imam will be taken into custody shortly," he added.
People in southern Kyrgyzstan are more responsible to recruitment appeals because they are religious, the officer continued. "Recruiters are taking advantage of these religious sentiments; besides, local residents do not have profuse knowledge of Islam and recruiters are brainwashing them under the religious disguise," Salimov said.
Extensive measures are being taken in southern Kyrgyzstan to prevent the recruitment of fighters for the Syria war. "We are meeting with people. These meetings are very fruitful, both for us and for local residents. We have been exposing new facts about the recruitment and getting information about ways fighters are recruited and sent [to Syria]. Information from our operative sources is confirmed in the course of such contacts," Salimov said.
The Tenth Main Department of the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry supported by territorial police units of the Osh and Batken regions seized the imam of a Kara-Suu mosque on February 10 on the counts of spreading extremist propaganda and recruitment of fighters for Syria.