Russian authorities have detained six Crimean Tatars after their homes were searched in Ukraine's Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula.
The Crimean Solidarity human rights group said on January 24 that the searches were conducted at the homes of Ekrem Krosh, Ayder Asanov, Refat Seydametov, Osman Abdurazzakov, Leman Zekiryayev, and Khalil Mambetov in the Dzhankoy district.
The men were later taken away by officers of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
Ekrem Krosh's wife, Amide Krosh, told the Crimean Solidarity group that the officers said the searches were part of an unspecified terrorism case.
Occupying Russian authorities have not issued any official statement regarding the searches and detention of the alleged suspects.
Since Moscow seized Crimea in 2014, Russian authorities have prosecuted dozens of Crimean Tatars for allegedly belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic group that is banned in Russia but not in Ukraine.
Moscow’s takeover of the peninsula was vocally opposed by many Crimean Tatars, who are a sizable minority in the region.
Exiled from their homeland to Central Asia by Soviet authorities under the dictatorship of Josef Stalin during World War II, many Crimean Tatars are very wary of Russia and Moscow's rule.
Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow's takeover of the peninsula.
Russia took control of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries. Moscow also backs separatists in a war against Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 13,200 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.