BISHKEK -- A Kyrgyz man suspected of sending five relatives to fight alongside Islamist militants in Syria has been arrested.
A police spokesman in the northern Chui region, Nurbek Toktosunov, told RFE/RL on January 28 that the 29-year-old man is suspected of persuading his father, two brothers, a sister, and a sister-in-law to travel to the Syrian city of Raqqa, where they joined Islamic State mliitants.
Toktosunov said investigators found CDs, leaflets, and books with extremist content in the suspect's home.
The statement comes a day after Kyrgyz authorities announced the arrests of three women they said were members of the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir in the country's south.
On January 26, the authorities said Kyrgyz security forces apprehended six suspected militants, including four accused of undergoing training in Syria, in the southern Osh province.