Kyrgyz Opposition Summoned Over Video

Chairman of the opposition Akyikat (Truth) party, Alikbek Jekshenkulov (file photo)

BISHKEK -- Several opposition leaders have been summoned to Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (UKMK) following the broadcast of a controversial video on state television.

The chairman of the opposition Akyikat (Truth) party, Alikbek Jekshenkulov, told RFE/RL that the opposition leaders must appear at the UKMK on the afternoon of September 3 after their names were mentioned in the video, which was aired by the main state television channel the previous evening.

In the video, youth activist Erlanbek Omuraliev claims knowledge of an alleged plot in which opposition politicians planned to poison the Naryn River and blame the Kumtor gold-mining corporation for the contamination. He says they also planned to recruit activists of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group to incite mass antigovernment protests.