BISHKEK, Sept. 21 ( Xinhua) -- The Kyrgyz special services detained a leader of a cell of the Hizb ut-Tahrir religious extremist organization, the State Committee for National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic said Friday.
The 44-year-old detainee, who was previously convicted and served a sentence in a colony settlement, is one of the leaders of a cell of the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization in Kyrgyzstan's northern Karakol town, according to the press service of the committee.
During the authorized searches at the residence of the detainee, the security officers seized a large number of banned extremist materials of the Hizb ut-Tahrir activities, it said.
A criminal case has been initiated, the committee said.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is a religious extremist organization, which describes its ideology as Islam and its aim as the re-establishment of the Islamic Caliphate or Islamic state to resume the Islamic way of life.
The organization has been banned in many countries including China, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
