More than twenty people suspected of involvement in the activities of the terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir have been detained in Tatarstan.

On November 18, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan announced that Alisher Usmanov, a native of Uzbekistan, born in 1962, who was on the interstate wanted list on suspicion of involvement in extremist and terrorist activities, was detained in Kazan. According to investigators, A. Usmanov is one of the leaders of the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization. In the course of a joint operation of the Tatarstan FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, explosives, an explosive device, and printed materials with extremist content were confiscated at the addresses of the detainee. A criminal case has been initiated under the articles of the Criminal Code "organization of a terrorist group", "illegal possession of weapons."

On November 20, the Republic of Tatarstan newspaper reported that more than 20 people had been detained and arrested.

“Most of the detainees,” the newspaper writes, “are involved in the activities of the extremist international organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party), banned in Russia by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation since 2003. Cells of this extremist organization illegally functioned in Kazan , Naberezhnye Chelny, Almetievsk and Yelabuga.

In addition to members of this organization, there was another criminal group. The first was engaged in religious dogma, distributed literature published by Hizb-ut-Tahrir, recruited supporters, the second was formed to commit criminal activities. The Islamic clergy of the republic assesses the activities of members of this organization as schismatic, aimed at undermining the traditional foundations of Islam in Tatarstan and inciting interfaith hatred, which is a direct violation of the RF Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations."

Sources

• One of the leaders of the international terrorist organization was detained in Kazan // Izvestia.Ru. 2004. November 18.
• "Republic of Tatarstan". Dmitry Alekseev. high-profile case // Religion and Mass Media. 2004. November 22.