Dushanbe - Five suspected religious extremists have been detained in Dushanbe, the PR center of the Tajik State Committee for National Security announced on Wednesday.
All five are believed to be members of the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir party.
"Five active party members were detained in an apartment in Dushanbe which was a meeting place for Hizb-ut-Tahrir members. Some 100 books, over 200 leaflets and 116 video CDs with extremist contents as well as a computer and flash cards with original information were seized during a search in the apartment," the report of the PR center says.
A criminal case of organizing a criminal community, fanning ethnic or religious enmity, organizing an extremist community and calling for overthrowing the constitutional system in Tajikistan was launched against the detainees.
Similar charges are usually brought against suspected members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. In October 2011 four people were sentenced to 20-22 years of jail in north Tajikistan.
Usually members of the banned party are detained in the Tajik part of the Fergana valley which Tajikistan shares with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The valley is regarded as a center of various extremist movements in Central Asia.
In 2010 the courts of Tajikistan sentenced 158 people to varying prison terms on charges of religious extremism.
In 2001 Tajikistan officially banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir in its own territory while the organization freely functions in the United States and EU countries. Russia and other CIS countries regard it as a terrorist organization.
