Kyrgyz Officials Arrest Five For Alleged Extremist Ties

Five alleged members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group have been arrested in Kyrgyzstan's southern province of Jalal-Abad.

Regional police said on June 25 that the suspects were arrested in Suzak district after police found 42 books and over 100 discs and leaflets with extremist content in their houses.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a London-based Sunni political organization that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate.

The Kyrgyz government and some other former Soviet republics have banned the group, branding its members and supporters as "extremists."

In recent months, Kyrgyz authorities in the southern regions of Jalal-Abad and Osh have detained dozens of alleged members of extremist religious groups suspected of recruiting people to fight in Syria.