HT emerged in Uzbekistan in " the early to mid-1990s " . In 1999 , six car bombs exploded over one and a half hours in the Uzbekistan capital , Tashkent killing sixteen and injuring over 120 . The Uzbek government blamed Islamic militants and responded with massive arrests and torture of pious Muslims . and created a " political vacuum " between a " brutally authoritarian regime " and militant Islamist groups . In July 2009 a number of members and sympathizers of HT were arrested after a pro-government imam and a high-ranking police officer were killed in the capital Tashkent
six car bombs
1999 Tashkent bombings
Hizb ut-Tahrir in Central Asia