Daesh plans to establish caliphate in Central Asia

Head of anti-Terrorism Centre in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) General Andrei Novikov yesterday warned that Daesh was planning to establish a “caliphate” in Central Asian countries, RT reported.

In a meeting of counter-terrorism chiefs of the security and intelligence services of the CIS, Novikov said that Daesh militants “are also trying to activate sleeper cells” in that area, according to RT.

Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Zinisz Razakov warned that terrorist threats in Central Asia and the CIS “will generate long-term conflicts”.

OPINION: Daesh is not dead and buried; it is another tool in the war on terror

In June, Igor Serotkin, deputy director of the Russian Federal Security Service, the head of National Counterterrorism Committee Body, said: “Despite the losses Daesh had sustained, it continued to spread throughout the world and remained a serious threat.”

CIS is a Euro-Asian international organisation composed of 12 former Soviet republics: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and is based in Minsk.