Ukrainian police on Tuesday said they had arrested three members of an Islamic fundamentalist group that was planning terrorist acts, the Interfax news agency reported. Two of the suspects reportedly were ethnic Tartars living in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. All three had been working as labourers in the Crimean resport city Yalta, according to a police statement. The men reportedly had become active members of Hizb ut Tahir, a pan-Islamist group with branches in the Middle East, Europe, and the former Soviet Union, in 2006. Police arrested the men in Simferopol without incident. Weapons confiscated by law enforcers included two shotguns, two pistols, and "Jihad-related literature." The men were suspected of conducting robberies to finance planned later terrorist attacks against Ukrainian government institutions, participating in land theft, and attempting to develop a guerilla organization in the Crimea region, the police statement said.
Relations between the predominantly Orthodox Christian population of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and its Sunni Muslim minority have become increasingly sensitive in recent months, primarily because of land ownership disputes. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko last month appointed a new prosecutor general to the region, with instructions to take steps to prevent increased inter-ethnic conflict.