KHUJAND, February 9, 2015, Asia-Plus  - 11 residents of the northern province of have been arrested on suspicion of membership in the outlawed Salafi group.

According to the Interior Ministry’s office in Sughd, the detainees are residents of the city Khujand and the Ghoziyon jamoat in the Bobojonghafourov district, aged 25 to 35.

The group members, led by Shuhrat Kuziboyev, 29, have reportedly taken training in one of Islamic countries.

An official source at the Interior Ministry’s office in Sughd says members of this group have been detained following complain by parishioners of the Sari Baland mosque in Khujand.

Many subversive literature and CDs containing materials propagating Salafi ideas have been confiscated from them, the source said.

Criminal proceedings have reportedly been instituted against them under the provisions of two articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 307’ (2) – organization of an activity of an extremist organization and participation in the banned public or religious associations; and Article 187 (1) – organization of a criminal grouping for committing serious or especially serious crimes.

The Tajik authorities banned Salafism as an illegal group on January 8, 2009, saying the Salafi movement represents a potential threat to national security and the Supreme Court added Salafists to its list of religious groups prohibited from operating in the country.

The movement claims to follow a strict and pure form of Islam, but Tajik clerics say the Salafists’ radical stance is similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Salafists do not recognize other branches of Islam, such as Shi''a and Sufism.  The movement is frequently referred to as Wahhabism, although Salafis reject this as derogatory.

The overwhelming majority of Tajiks are followers of Hanafia, a more liberal branch of Sunni Islam.

On December 8, 2014, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan formally labeled the banned Salafi group as an extremist organization.  The ruling reportedly followed a request submitted to the court by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.  The ruling means that the group’s website and printed materials are also banned.