Alleged female member of banned Islamic group arrested in Tajikistan

Authorities in Tajikistan have arrested an alleged female member of an outlawed Islamic group, an official said Wednesday.

Photo: Alleged female member of banned Islamic group arrested in Tajikistan

The 34-year-old woman was arrested in the capital Dushanbe on Monday after police had found in her home 600 leaflets calling for the overthrow of the country's constitutional system and other banned literature, said Interior Ministry spokesman Khudoynazar Asoyev.

He said that 22 Hizb-ut-Tahrir members were arrested for spreading extremist ideas in Tajikistan since the beginning of this year. More than 400 members have been convicted in the ex-Soviet republic in the past four years.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which advocates creating a worldwide Islamic state, originated in the Middle East and spread to predominantly Muslim Central Asia after the 1991 Soviet collapse. It claims to reject violence, reports the AP.

I.L.