Kyrgyz Security Forces Arrest Islamic Activist

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan -- Kyrgyzstan's National Security Committee (KNB) has said that a leader of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir movement has been arrested in the southern Jalal-Abad region, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

KNB officials said the unnamed suspect, who is 47 years old, was apprehended in Jalal-Abad Oblast's Suzak district. Some 300 books, brochures, and leaflets with what was called "extremist religious content" were reportedly confiscated from the suspect.

Officials did not specify the date of the suspect's arrest. He is being held in Jalal-Abad's pretrial detention center.

An investigation has been launched into the organized fomenting of ethnic, racial, and religious hatred and the possession of illegal extremist literature.

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