Analysts say the emphasis is to imbue the recruits with fanatical zeal. They never surrender and show no mercy. Each one carries a grenade and, when their situation becomes hopeless, they pull the ring. Most of these fighters were brought up in mountain villages, so high altitudes hold no terrors for them. They skip nimbly around with light equipment and ammunition and fade skilfully into landscape.
Snipers act independently.
Members of each unit know nothing about what other groups are doing. Because there is no front line, the guerrillas can easily conceal themselves among local residents. The fanatics win over shepherds, forest-guards and farmers, who know every mountain path, enabling them to conceal ammunition and hide. According a doctor at a narcotics clinic in Almaty, Tatiana Mashkevich, the former concentrates the mind, while the latter creates a euphoria which eliminates fear. The weakness of the guerrillas lies in their small numbers, lack of long-term strategy and the absence of any secure base.