Fascinating. A BBC reporter has been detained in Tajikistan for allegedly participating in a banned Islamic group and using his position to promote its extreme ideology. Oh my, what a surprise!
“BBC radio correspondent Urunbay Usmonov, 50, was detained for membership in the illegal movement Hizb ut-Tahrir,” Makhmadullo Asadulloyev, a spokesman for the interior ministry in the former Soviet republic, confirmed on Wednesday. Mr Usmonov “was engaged in extremist propaganda and campaigning for the movement on the internet,” he added. Hizb ut-Tahrir, which promotes a rigorous and puritanical brand of Islam, is legal in the UK but banned in most countries in Central Asia. It seeks to establish a global Caliphate, but rejects the use of violence to achieve this end. The BBC expressed “very great concern” at Mr Usmonov’s arrest and demanded his immediate release.