Suspected Islamists Detained In Kazakhstan

Kazakh Muslims at prayer (RFE/RL) July 27, 2006 -- Kazakh authorities have detained seven suspected members of a Islamic revivalist group, Tablighi Jamaat, in the city of Aqtobe and charged them with conducting illegal missionary activity.

The defendants face fines of about $450 each.

Police in northern Kazakhstan claimed in June to have dismantled a cell of Tablighi Jamaat, or Society for the Propagation of the Faith, in Petropavl. They said its members were fined and placed under surveillance.

The Tablighi Jamaat is a nonviolent movement that was set up in India in the late 1920s.

The group, which is now headquartered in Pakistan, is believed to have many followers in Central Asia, especially Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

(Kazakhstan Today, Interfax-Kazakhstan)