BISHKEK -- The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry (MVD) has arrested a suspected leader of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) extremist organisation, 24.kg reported Tuesday (July 16).
The suspect, a 41-year-old native of Jalal-Abad Province, was an active HT leader in Jalal-Abad and Chui provinces and in Bishkek, said the MVD.
He had been wanted since last November for committing an extremism-related crime.
The suspect resisted arrest, but MVD agents took him to a jail in Bishkek, said the MVD, adding that its agents seized a large amount of Hizb ut-Tahrir literature and electronic media.
The detainee "recruited citizens from socially vulnerable parts of the population and regularly attended meetings of leaders of the extremist underground", said the MVD. Participants of the meetings "discussed further plans to spread extremist ideology nationwide".
