Uzbek special services stop 4 citizens from going to Syria to join terrorists there
TASHKENT. Sept 24 (Interfax) - Officers of Uzbekistan's State Security Service have detained four Uzbek citizens who intended to travel to Syria to fight alongside terrorists there, the service's press center said in a statement.
"Two of them were born in 1998 and are students of Fergana State University. One of them, who was influenced by sermons preached by religious extremists on social networks, created his own account and began actively promoting ideas of jihad," the statement said.
The students received clear instructions from their online mentors on how to reach Syria via third countries under the guise of labor migration, it said.
Another two potential militants from Uzbekistan's Fergana Valley were detained at an airport where they were planning to board a Moscow-bound flight. They told their relatives that they were going to work in Russia, but received money from a resident of neighboring Kyrgyzstan to pay for their journey to Syria "with the aim of jihad."
Criminal cases have been opened and an investigation is ongoing.