Thursday, 13 August 2009
Ikram Yakubov, who is claiming to be a former Uzbek National Security Service (SNB) Major in Uzbekistan, talked to BBC Newsnight on Tuesday. Yakubov shared his striking experiences as an intelligence officer in Uzbekistan who fled to England after harsh oppression from his government.
Ikram Yakubov claimed to be involving numerous cases which were produced against innocent people in Uzbekistan. His grandfather was the founder of the KGB in Uzbekistan and his father was too a spy who was working under the order of his state. Yakubov stated that being an intelligence officer was his dream when he was a child which apparently turned into a nightmare after the things have changed.
According to the BBC news, Yakubov was collecting opinions and information among students as a loyal officer of his state. He also told that the young intelligence officers were thought by Russian intelligence service to learn how to kill and to profess in spying.
He admitted planning violence including the assassination attempt to Uzbek opposition leader in an exile in Turkey. Yakubov also said that he was following the direct orders of the Uzbek President Islam Kerimov. He had to fulfill Kerimov's orders, otherwise he would destroy him, Yakubov claimed.
Craig Murray who was the UK ambassador to Uzbekistan between the years 2002-2004 also told to BBC reporters that torture in Uzbekistan is not occasional but it is happening to thousands of people in the country.
Moreover, Ikram Yakubov claimed that intelligence officers were systematically torturing innocent people to sign confession documents as well. Yakubov, who has defected from Uzbekistan, has also said that the government of Islam Kerimov organized false flag terrorist attacks to blame them on Islamist extremists in Uzbekistan. Yakubov also claimed that many Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) leaders, who are designated terrorists by the US State Department, were taught by the Uzbek government, which supported their bombings in Tashkent and in the 2005 Andijan uprising as well.
"The opponents of the Regime were being threatened and said to stop their activities against the President" Yakubov said. He also told that he reached a personal breaking point when Kerimov Regime blamed the opponents for the terrorist bombings occurred in Tashkent which he knew were organized by his own colleagues.
Ikram Yakubov is now living in England as a political refugee.
