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WATER POLITICS

Via Central Asia Online, an interesting report on Central Asian water tension:

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) militants are menacing an Afghan water resource valuable to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the Faryab Province police chief told Deutsche Welle (DW) in an interview published May 9.

The militants in late April attacked three districts in Faryab Province, Nabijan Mulahel told DW, adding that most of the militants were Chechen and Uzbek IMU members.

Other insurgents involved were ethnic Tajiks, Turkmens and Pashtuns from Afghanistan, he said. Government troops counter-attacked, putting an end to the fighting May 8 in Qaisar District, but fighting continued afterward in the other two districts, he said.

The IMU militants carried out a Taliban plan and struck in an area strategically vital to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Mulahel said, explaining the area contained a water resource nicknamed the “Turkestan Water Bank,” important to Faryab and the two countries.

Turkmen intelligence is aware of the threat and monitors the ethnic Turkmen population in Afghanistan, Nurmukhammed Khanamov, an observer of Turkmen affairs, told DW.