ISN SECURITY WATCH (28/12/04) - Twelve activists of the radical Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir have been detained in the Moscow region and Muslim-populated Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and Udmurtia republics in central Russia, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev told journalists on Saturday.  The detained men were on the international list of wanted persons, he said. Hizb-ut-Tahrir - a group that does not condone violence, but calls for the creation of a global Islamic caliphate - is banned in Russia and several Central Asian republics.
| Actually, it does condone violence. It just ostentatiously avoids violence while pushing cannon fodder into allied groups that do use it... |
Nurgaliev said the detained activists were suspected of carrying out terrorist attacks, premeditated murder, and other grave crimes. He said their apprehension was the result of a joint effort among law enforcers from Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
| The acts were no doubt carried out while wearing their Islamic Rotary turbans, rather than as Hezbies... |
Uzbekistan has been accused by human rights activists and international observers of using the US-led "war on terror" to justify a crackdown on dissent, especially among Hizb-ut-Tahrir members. No solid evidence has ever been presented to suggest that Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a violent extremist group, or that its operatives were behind a series of terrorist attacks in Tashkent in July, as Uzbek authorities claimed.
| Oh. Well. In that case it probably wasn't them. Best just let them all go... |
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