MOSCOW:
Russia charged nine suspected militants with belonging to outlawed Islamic organisation Hizbut Tahrir on Friday, which authorities say had planned bomb attacks on civilian targets in Moscow.
Police said they found firearms, explosives and counterfeit currency worth $1 million and €2 million during a raid on the apartments of Russian and Tajik citizens earlier this month.
At the time, law enforcement officials said they detained 18 suspected Hizbut Tahrir activists. It was not immediately clear if some or all of the 18 remained in custody.
“Nine citizens of Russia and the Republic of Tajikistan have been charged... on suspicion of organising activities of the international terrorist organisation Hizbut Tahrir and having in their possession explosives, weapons, and ammunition,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Five of those charged were accused of leading cells of the organisation, which has gained a foothold through much of the former Soviet Union, especially in Central Asia and the predominantly Muslim regions of central Russia.
The Interior Ministry told Russian newswires it had tracked the alleged cells since 2010 and that their leaders had planned to bomb a railway track near a Moscow train station on November 4, 2010 - an attack police said they had prevented.
The ministry said Hizbut Tahrir was trying to capitalise on an Islamist insurgency in Russia’s North Caucasus region by drawing youth from the predominantly Muslim region into its ranks and distributing extremist literature.
Russia is fighting an uphill battle to contain North Caucasus militants who wage daily violence to create an Islamist state a few hundred kilometres from where Moscow plans to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2012.
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