Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (GKNB) announced on July 5 that it has thwarted a coup attempt by a group aiming destabilise the country through mass riots and seize power violently. 

The report described a “destructive group planning a violent seizure of power”. According to local media reports there is speculation that a member of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, known as Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP, or ISIS-K), could be behind the coup attempt. 

Khorasan was responsible for the terror attack on March 22 in Moscow, which resulted in at least 144 deaths, and is understood to be becoming increasingly active in Central Asia. 

Earlier in the week Kyrgyzstan’s Prime Minister Akylbek Zhaparov called for stronger action against terrorists and extremists during his address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit the previous day.

In an official statement, the GKNB said that raids on the suspects' homes and vehicles uncovered a cache of weapons as well as law enforcement uniforms, drones and extremist literature. 

The committee detailed the findings from their searches: 50 weapons, 20 pistols, 255,238 units of ammunition, 200 sets of law enforcement uniforms, 150 police and 100 military headdresses, 38 sets of body armour, two drones, radios, homemade explosives, and extremist literature. 

Additionally, personal documents of several citizens were discovered, including a military ID belonging to Marlen Mamataliev, an MP in the Kyrgyz parliament.

Five suspects have been placed in pre-trial detention, and further investigative and operational measures are ongoing to identify other people involved. 

In mid-June, Kyrgyzstan’s GKNB arrested 15 individuals in Bishkek and other locations, suspected of having ties to ISKP. A significant amount of literature was seized during the operation. The suspects are accused of uploading videos that provide tactical guidance on using weapons and explosives.

These arrests coincided with a similar incident in Kazakhstan, where a female cell reportedly planning an attack on a Western target was apprehended, though authorities denied these claims.

These events highlight ISKP’s growing influence in the region, expanding its ongoing propaganda campaign aimed at Central Asian audiences. In 2022, the group launched official Tajik and Uzbek branches under its Al-Azaim Foundation for Media Production and also established a Russian-language division. This campaign, which intensified in 2020-21, continues, as evidenced by the release of a new Tajik-language magazine following the March 22 attack in Moscow.