DUSHANBE, April 29, 2013, Asia-Plus — Tajik nationals who were detained during a recent mass arrest of Muslims in Moscow have been released.
Mohammad Egamzod, an official representative of Tajik Embassy in Moscow, says 35 Tajik nationals, who were arrested following prayers at the Darul Arqam Islamic Cultural Center in Moscow on April 26, were released after questioning.
“The police station in Moscow’s Donskoy district has given us a full list of Tajik nationals who were detained following Friday prayer,” said Egamzod, “Police officers noted that they [detained Tajik nationals] are not involved in any Islamic extremist groups.”
We will recall that Russia law enforcement officers detained 140 people at the Darul Arqam Islamic Cultural Center in Moscow on Friday as part of a search for Islamist militants. According to Russian media sources, Federal Security Service (FSB) and Federal Migration Service (FMS) officers took the detainees, including more than 30 foreigners, to police stations near the site in southern Moscow for identification and questioning.
RIA Novosti reported that law enforcement authorities said the mosque previously has been visited by people who had been involved in preparing or carrying out terrorist attacks.
But the Russian government critics say such raids are aimed largely at flushing out illegal migrants from the ex-Soviet republics of the South Caucasus and Central Asia, and to show that the authorities are taking action against Islamists.
Some media sources say about 300 people were detained in a similar sweep in St. Petersburg in February, and most were swiftly released.
