[An Nahar] Russian police incarceratedKeep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
six members of a banned Islamist organization for spreading "extremist" literature and recruiting followers in the capital Moscow, officials said Monday.
Six leaders and active members of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) were "leading active recruitment work in Moscow mosques, and spreading bad turban literature," Moscow police's anti-extremism department said.
The organization is banned in Russia following a Supreme Court decision to recognize it as a terrorist group.
Police and Russia's FSB security service raided the suspects' homes, "finding and seizing nine grenades, weapons, cartridges, bad turban literature and recruitment manuals," the statement said.
The detainees are from Central Asian countries Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, police front man Vladimir Konovalov added, though it was unclear whether they have been naturalized in Russia.
"Most likely there will be a criminal case launched into extremism," he told AFP.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has its headquarters in Britannia and aims to establish an Islamic state, according to its website. It has been banned in many countries and pursued with particular vigor in the Mohammedan but highly secular ex-Soviet Central Asian states.