Russia Detains Alleged Banned Islamists in Petersburg

Russian security officials in the country's second city of Saint Petersburg have detained alleged members of banned Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, Russia's FSB security agency said Tuesday.

Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) seeks to re-establish a caliphate -- a pan-Islamic state based on Islamic rule harking to the medieval era -- and has been banned in Russia since 2003.

"People linked to the organization of the activities of a Saint Petersburg cell of the international terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir were detained," a statement from the federal security service (FSB) said.

The security agency did not specify the number of those held but local news reports said some 20 people were detained following a string of raids on apartments and hostels across the city on Tuesday morning.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has been banned in many countries and is pursued with particular vigor in the Muslim but highly secular ex-Soviet Central Asian states.

In Russia, the group has been active in the Northern Caucasus as well as in the mainly Muslim Volga regions of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan.