Three active members of the Islamic Party of Turkestan, an internationally recognized terrorist group, were arrested in Moscow and the Moscow region over the weekend, Itar-Tass reported Monday, citing the Interior Ministry’s department to fight extremism.
A police spokesman said the three, wanted in Tajikistan for terrorism and extremism, had been disseminating extremist materials and were training rebels in Russia.
Police said a 33-year-old leader of the Russian branch of the Islamic Party of Turkestan was among those detained. The suspects were recruiting fighters who had participated in terrorist attacks in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, police said. The authorities are considering extraditing them to Tajikistan.
Until 2001, the Islamic Party of Turkestan was called the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a militant group formed in 1996 that fought Uzbekistan’s secular government.
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