The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said on May 17 that four "leaders" of the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group and several of the banned organization's members have been apprehended in Bishkek and other locations inside the Central Asian nation. According to the ministry, the suspects were detained during a special operation two days earlier. Police confiscated books with "extremist content," mobile phones, and other electronic devices as they searched the suspects' homes. Hizb ut-Tahrir, along with such Islamic groups as Yakyn Inkar, Jabhat an-Nusra, Jaihul-Mahdi, Ansarullah, Jihad Tobu, and the Islamic Movement of Eastern Turkistan, have been outlawed in Kyrgyzstan since 2003. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.
