Linked with the Uzbek secret services by an agreement, the FSB works in team with them to track down international criminals, replied our interviewee when asked whether the service was acting together with Uzbek colleagues to detect a sequence of recent terror acts in Uzbekistan.
The country saw four acts within these two days. The latest was this morning as an explosive device went off at a traffic police post 15 kilometres off Tashkent, Uzbek capital. Yesterday's three blasts killed 19 and injured 26.
The FSB has never for an instant stopped contacts with the Uzbek secret services. In the two preceding years, it helped to track down and seize several Uzbek nationals active in international terror leagues, said Colonel Ignatchenko.
Thus, the FSB fell on the track of several members of the international Muslim terrorist organisation, Hezb al-Tahrir, who were taking refuge in Russia. The service detained one Kholmirzayev, prominent in that organisation and wanted by Uzbekistan's National Security Service on suspicion of involvement in several crimes.
As far as secret services know, Kholmirzayev went through training in an Afghan-based terrorist camp. The detainee was later extradited to Uzbekistan.
