June 10, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 9, 1424

MOSCOW, June 9: Russia’s security services (FSB) on Monday claimed arresting 121 members of the Hizb-i-Tahrir in Moscow, dismantling the cell of a group that aims to set up a Muslim state in Central Asia.

A television network aired footage of the Friday raid, showing dozens of young men lined up against a brick wall as armed soldiers in camouflage stood guard.

“These are terrorists who want to overthrow the existing regime by military means,” the FSB’s top spokesman, Sergei Ignatchenko, told the channel.

Russia put Hizb-i-Tahrir, a radical group operating out of Ferghana Valley on its blacklist of 15 terrorist organizations in February.

An FSB spokesman initially said 55 suspected members — foreigners living illegally in Russia — were arrested in the raid, but a news agency reported that a total of 121 had been arrested.

“They were hiding on the grounds of a Moscow factory, where they were arrested,” Mr Ignatchenko said, without providing details on the other 66 arrests.

Another official said the cell’s leader, Kyrgyz national Alisher Musayev, was detained in the raid, during which agents found 100 grams of explosives, three grenades and 15 Hizb-i-Tahrir leaflets.—AFP