A map of Ufa, Bashkir capital, found on one of the Hizb chieftains was marked for public places, congested areas and government premises. A huge stock of propaganda materials was confiscated-more than 500 leaflets and several dozen extremist books and brochures.
Russia's Supreme Court outlawed the Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, or Islamic Liberation Party, in a verdict of February 14, 2003.
As far as detectives know, one of the detainees came through a training center among whose students were terrorists involved in a heinous school hostage taking of September 1-3 in Beslan, North Ossetia. Another detainee had fought in Afghanistan on the Taliban side. Seized by the US military, he was extradited to Russia, in January, from the Guantanamo base.
A majority of Bashkir Hizb activists engaged in private enterprise, and were ceding a generous part of their profits to the organization as membership fees. Several have past criminal records. Some activists are former Central Asian countries' nationals, naturalized in Russia. The Bashkir group was in close contact with underground Hizb groups in other parts of Russia and outside it.
The Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami is plotting secession of Bashkortostan and other Muslim-populated parts of Russia to establish a world caliphate. It is to follow the pattern of an early mediaeval Muslim state, in which the Caliph-from the Arabic for "vice-regent"-concentrated entire religious and secular authority, with the title of Commander of the Faithful. The Hizb intends to reach its goal by the force of arms.
Hizb activists lately engaged in dynamic recruitment throughout the republic, says the FSB board.
The republican prosecutor's office has launched criminal proceedings on recruitment for, and complicity in terrorist crimes.
