TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Seven days after charismatic Christian Bobur Aslamov was detained during a raid on a religious meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, his whereabouts remain unknown, one Protestant said April 10. Church members fear he could face criminal charges.
Police also beat some church members during a raid when police, secret police and Justice Department officials entered a Full Gospel congregation in Tashkent April 9, just before the Justice Department was due to rule on the congregation’s long-stalled registration application. Five church members face administrative penalties.
Amid renewed media attacks on religious communities, Baptists objected to regional television coverage of a police raid in March. "This program aimed to stir up society against church members," they said. "And all this is being done in defiance of the law."
Begzot Kadyrov of the government’s Religious Affairs Committee refused to discuss this and other recent harassment of religious communities. "Don’t disturb us with stupid questions about religious liberties," he said.
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