On May 2, 2017, the Uzbek Interior Minister, Major-General Abdusalom Azizov, at a meeting of the International Press Club, spoke about the capacities of the Interior Ministry to counter various threats, including terrorism and religious extremism.
"Recently, Interior Troops have been added to the Interior Ministry", he said.
"The President signed decree returning these troops to us. Starting from May 1, they are in full legal subordination of the Interior Ministry," Abdusalom Azizov said, adding that the ministry will continue their special training.
The Minister expressed confidence that soon there will be progress in the formation of rapid response units under the Interior Ministry, noting that another decree of the country's leadership is expected to this end.
"I am sure and you too, be reassured that we have sufficient capacity to counter any aggression," the Minister underscored.
Abdusalom Azizov said that a great deal of operational and investigative work is being carried out in Uzbekistan to prevent the negative influence on fellow countrymen of some of our citizens who stay over some time abroad.
"Many of our citizens, without knowledge of true Islam, fall into in the ranks of the Wahhabi jamaats in Russia’s Transcaucasus and follow their path. There are many cases when people are cheated being promised big salaries in Turkey, from there they cross the border into Syria."
"I will not hide that virtually every day we detect people who after returning begin to disseminate the Wahhabi ideology. There have been numerous attempts, but we have managed to suppress them all," the Interior Minister added.
The Minister added that all detected members of terrorist and extremist organizations are being declared on the international wanted list. "Just an example, the Uzbek special services had reported on persons who committed recent terrorist attacks in Stockholm and Istanbul. But there are a few countries, including Sweden who welcome these people and offer them refugee status," Abdusalom Azizov complained.
He said that in order to increase the openness of the Interior Ministry it is planned in the near future to "go one step further": ie publish information about all terrorists and criminals in social networks, in particular on Facebook. "So that everyone who gives them shelter, work abroad, gets to know what kind of person they really are. We will do this, I think," the Minister concluded.
