Press Release
People are prohibited to invite guests to their homes and entertain them with food in Karasu, Osh Region, Kyrgyzstan
(Translated)

Protest action named “We refuse to live this way of life; keep your tainted hands off our Muslim sisters! Arrest us But Stop tormenting Muslims under pretence of Hizb ut Tahrir” has started.

On February 17, 2016 after the midday prayer (salat), around 15:00, law enforcement officers broke into a Muslim’s house, at the address of Nurahunov Street, 20, Karasu, where women came together according to traditional customs, and arrested twenty Muslim sisters and forcibly took them to the Karasu district police station. Police even took elderly women who were among the guests. According to the women, the police offended them also treating them roughly. The women were held at the police station deep into the night.

Starting February, police officers of the 10th department of Karasu district police station began conducting raids talks with students at schools. The police told them that the customary Uzbek custom – inviting people to their homes for entertainment – was prohibited and that the youth are not allowed to participate in that tradition. Also, they talked in an aggressive tone about the prohibition of attending the Friday namaz by students. The police officers also visited teahouses, where groups of people come together and order food as per the custom and threatened cooks.

The Kyrgyzstan government managed to torment its people so much that now it hopes to shift all responsibility for this to others, assaulting honour of Muslims, and provoking them to oppose the government, and at the same time, it carries out information slander, trying to mislead the nation. The government’s crimes against its people are countless: squandering national property, selling lands and entire sectors, increasing taxes on citizens and their properties, allowing foreign organizations to possess the country’s facilities of strategic importance, or arranging prison-breaking and hunting and shooting escaped convicts… Now the people’s attention would be distracted from all this. Therefore, high officials, related to the above crimes, are conducting diversionary actions as mentioned above using their authorities and power. For this reason, the authorities began to disturb and provoke Muslims. Security authorities arrest Muslims speculating the Syrian problem, and then free them for huge fees (several thousand dollars). This is documented information.

For the news agencies, they search residences of Hizb ut Tahrir members. They even place tens of our sisters in prison for lengthy terms, accusing them of being members of Hizb ut Tahrir. In Bishkek, they sentenced a Muslim sister for eight years despite that she had a handicapped daughter dependent on her. Another Muslim sister was put in prison with a child on hand that was less than one year old based on mere suspicions. During the celebration of the ‘Id al-Fitr in Nookat (the Nookat events), they arrested a pregnant Muslim sister. During the interrogation, the investigator (may Allah’s curse be upon him) hit her stomach intentionally and she lost her pregnancy. The reason being pregnancy could save our sister from prison.

It was revealed that none of the arrested twenty Muslim sisters was related to Hizb ut Tahrir. However, the intrusion and arrest were especially arranged to instigate us, men. The government, under the pressure of Uzbekistan and Russia, is trying to persecute and oppress Muslims in the same manner. In an effort to get “pittances” allocated by the West for the fight against Islam and Muslims, they encroach on our women, our mothers in spite of their age.

In this connection, the men of Hizb ut Tahrir / Kyrgyzstan, so far in Karasu, have started the action of voluntary surrender to the security authorities. The men will surrender to the authorities with tied hands and saying: “We refuse to live this way of life; keep your tainted hands off our Muslim sisters! Arrest us But Stop tormenting Muslims under pretence of Hizb ut Tahrir.” This action will continue by stages until the Kuffar’s invasions stop.

May Allah endow our brothers with endurance and reward for their dedication.

All citizens who are fed up with the violence and oppression of the Kufr’s henchmen can join the protest action along with the Hizb members.

The action will continue until the security authorities officially apologize for their lawlessness mentioned above and stop their invasion following order of the Kufr.

Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Kyrgyzstan