TASHKENT. April 16 (Interfax) - Officers from the State Security Service of Uzbekistan have delivered to Tashkent from Turkey the leader of a terrorist organization funded by Jabhat al-Nusra and Turkestan Islamic Movement which are both banned in Russia, a source in Uzbekistan's law enforcement agencies told Interfax on Sunday.
"As the result of the Service's operations, Turkey has deported a terrorist ideologist and native of Uzbekistan, Khamidullo Mamanazarov, to Uzbekistan," the source said.
For many years Mamanazarov mentored and then led the Ihsam-Ilim organization which operated in Istanbul illegally and was funded by Turkestan Islamic Movement and Jabhat al-Nusra among others, the source said.
The organization was formed in 2009 by a native of Andijan Region, Mirzogolib Khamidov, a terrorist abettor also known as Abdulloh Buhoriy. In 2014 Mamanazarov was involved in organizing the murder of Khamidov and then replaced him as the leader of Ihsan-Ilim.
This organization would lure young people from the CIS under the pretext of teaching Islam on the Internet, according to law enforcement authorities. Initially students would be given real religious lessons. Later, they would start being simultaneously brainwashed with extremist ideology and later join terrorist groups in Syria.
In 2016, when Turkish authorities stepped up counter-terrorist efforts, Mamanazarov was arrested at Istanbul's airport trying to leave for Sudan with a fake Syrian passport.
Mamazarov is being investigated as part of a criminal inquiry, the Uzbek law enforcement representative said.