Geography of Kazakhstan the water in Kazakhstan is polluted by industrial effluents, pesticide and fertilizer residue, and, in some places, radioactive elements. The most visible damage has been to the Aral Sea, which as recently as the 1970s was larger than any of the Great Lakes of North America save Lake Superior. The sea began to shrink rapidly when sharply increased irrigation and other demands on the only significant tributaries, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya (the latter reaching the Aral from neighboring Uzbekistan), all but eliminated inflow. During the Soviet Era, Kazakhstan received water from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Terrorism and counter-terrorism in Kazakhstan Uzbek authorities accuse of involvement in the Andijan unrest and membership in a religious extremist organization, and Kyrgyzstan deported five Andijan-refugees—Jahongir Maqsudov, Yoqub Toshboev, Odiljon Rahimov, Rasuljon Pirmatov, and Fayoz Tojihalilov—to Uzbekistan in early August 2006. In March 1998 the Uzbek government accused Obidkhon Qori Nazarov, an Imam, of religious extremism, terrorism, and membership in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Nazarov fled to Kazakhstan, leaving behind his wife, son, and three brothers, all of whom have been imprisoned or disappeared, though his wife has been released. John MacLeod, a senior editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting who