DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) - A senior Russian security official said Tuesday that militants from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are trying to move what remains of their units in Afghanistan into neighboring Tajikistan, a news agency reported.
The Interfax news agency quoted Konstantin Totsky, the head of the Russian Federal Border Guards Service, as saying that small groups of IMU fighters were trying to infiltrate Tajikistan and smuggle drugs.
The IMU, which is on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations, is accused of seeking to establish a radical Islamic state in Uzbekistan, the most populous nation in former Soviet Central Asia. The IMU is held responsible for a series of terrorist activities in Uzbekistan in 1999.
The IMU has had bases in Tajikistan as well as in northern Afghanistan, where its militants allegedly received training at al-Qaida-run training bases, which were disrupted during the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign that followed the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington.
The State Department says the IMU suffered severe losses at the hands of coalition forces during the battle for the Afghan city of Kunduz in November.
Totsky said IMU fighters had been detained on the Tajik-Afghan border in February and March.
Tajikistan's high mountains are easy to hide in and have provided shelter to IMU militants in the past.