From Migrant to Militant: Uzbekistan Sentences Jihadist
A district court in Uzbekistan just sentenced a 46-year-old Uzbek citizen, Obid Saparov from Kashkadarya Province, to 16 years in prison for joining the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) militant group and being involved in a 2022 rocket attack on an Uzbek border city.
Saparov’s involvement with Islamic militant groups predates the rocket attack by nearly a decade, and the evidence gathered by investigators offers a rare and fascinating look at this Uzbek citizen’s journey into jihadism.
From Migrant Laborer to Islamic Militant
The beginnings of Saparov’s radicalization are a common story for hundreds of Central Asian citizens who joined militant groups in the Middle East or Afghanistan.
Saparov went to Ufa, Russia, as a migrant laborer in June 2013. He found audio and video material on the internet produced by extremist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Turkestan and the “Jihodchilar” (“Jihadists). Saparov came into contact with members of the Jihadists in Ufa and in August 2013 left Russia for Baku, and from there went to Zahedan, Iran, and in March 2014 crossed into Afghanistan and eventually reached the town of Mirali in Waziristan, Pakistan.
There, according to Uzbek media reports, he joined the Islamic Movement of Turkestan.
The name of this group is interesting because in a kun.uz report, it mentions that when Saparov was in Ufa, some of the extremist material he found online was based on the ideas of Tohir Yuldash.
Yuldash helped found the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) terrorist organization and led the group until he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in August 2009. The IMU aimed to overthrow the Uzbek government and staged armed incursions into Uzbekistan in 1999 and 2000. The IMU were allies of the Taliban and were in Afghanistan when the U.S.-led military operations started in late 2001.
The IMU suffered heavy losses, and the remnants of the group, including Yuldash, fled across the border into Pakistan.
Ten Years of Militancy
Saparov underwent training at camps in Pakistan after he arrived, and later worked in a militant “supply center.”
According to the Uzbek media reports, the Islamic Movement of Turkestan splintered at the start of 2016, and Saparov joined a militant group from the Islamic State that was operating in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
The IMU was still based in Pakistan in August 2015 when its leader, Usman Ghazi, swore an oath to the Islamic State, and the IMU split. Part of the IMU followed Ghazi into Afghanistan (where most were killed in fighting in Zabul and Herat provinces), and most of the others went into northeastern Afghanistan.
However, the ISKP did have a presence in Jalalabad that lasted until after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
Uzbek investigators said Saparov joined the ISKP and was with the group from 2016 to 2024. Saparov was involved in staging attacks in Jalalabad, Kunduz, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Kabul. Saparov’s group fought against the Afghan government and foreign troops, and against the Taliban.
Saparov was also engaged in recruitment, media propaganda, and preparing terrorist attacks.
Uzbek prosecutors said Saparov helped organize the bombing of the Sikh temple in Kabul in June 2022. The bomb was planted by a citizen of Tajikistan who went by the name “Abu Muhammad Tojiki.”
Saparov was also involved in the bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul in September 2022. The suicide bomber in the terrorist act at the Russian embassy was a citizen of Uzbekistan who used the name “Ibrohim.” He stayed at the same Kabul flat as Saparov for two days before the attack, and Saparov allegedly drove “Ibrohim” to the embassy.
Saparov was operating under the command of someone called “Torik,” who had a stepson using the name “Zubair.” “Zubair” was a citizen of Kyrgyzstan.
For Uzbekistan, Saparov’s most egregious act of terrorism occurred between the bombings at the Sikh temple and the Russian embassy. On July 5, 2022, five rockets, assembled by “Torik,” were launched from Afghanistan, across the Amu-Darya River that divides the two countries, into the Uzbek border city of Termez.
Uzbek prosecutors presented evidence that Saparov “personally stored, transported, and prepared” the rockets launched at Termez.
The rockets caused property damage but no casualties among the population. However, that attack followed an earlier attempt in April that year to shoot rockets from Afghanistan into Termez. Ten rockets were fired, but all of them landed in the river.
Prosecutors did not connect Saparov to that attack.
The Taliban were detaining Saparov’s cohorts during the summer of 2022, and Saparov fled to Pakistan, where he found refuge with unnamed militant groups.
In September 2024, Pakistani security forces detained 20 of Saparov’s accomplices, among them “citizens of Uzbekistan from Andijan, Namangan, and Syrdarya.” In January 2025, Saparov was detained and extradited to Uzbekistan.
According to reports, Saparov “partially” admitted his guilt and repented for his actions.
As reported by gazeta.uz, “He asked the court to take into account that he had no previous convictions and has a family and three children.”
It is difficult to gauge how much of the prosecutors’ evidence is accurate, and maybe all of it is. Saparov was almost surely in the IMU, but Uzbek prosecutors and the court seemed not to want to mention Uzbekistan’s most infamous homegrown terrorist group, instead using a more generic name that implied members from all around Central Asia and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
However, Saparov was in ISKP, and most ISKP militants are killed during their attacks or in security operations. Very few make it into a courtroom, so the account of Saparov’s activities over the course of some 12 years offers a compelling insight into the path of a militant, in this case from Uzbekistan, as he moved from country to country and exchanged one militant group for another.
