ROSTOV-ON-DON, March 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) busted an international terrorist organization’s clandestine cell in Rostov-on-Don in the country’s south, the FSB’s regional branch reported on Thursday.

"The FSB’s branch for the Rostov Region busted, with the coordinating role of the FSB’s central office, a clandestine cell of an international terrorist organization that was active in Rostov-on-Don. The suspects were detained at one of the apartments of a multi-storey residential building in the Temernik neighborhood," the statement reads.

The cell’s ringleader was a citizen of Afghanistan who was recruiting residents of the Rostov Region into the ranks of international terrorist structures active in the Afghan-Pakistani area, according to the statement.

"In accordance with the Russian legislation, the foreigner was denied entry into Russia for the purposes of security. However, after he was ideologically indoctrinated in Afghanistan and after he changed his last and first name, the Afghan citizen arrived in Rostov-on-Don under the guise of a refugee and started his recruitment activity," the press office informed.

The ringleader was in charge of setting up a group of Islamists ready at any time on instructions from foreign emissaries to commit terrorist crimes both on the territory of Russia and outside it, the FSB’s regional branch said.

"Currently, the investigative department has opened two criminal cases against the Afghan citizen. An investigation is underway," it reported.

The recruiter of the international terrorist group’s cell has been placed into custody, the press office of the FSB’s regional branch told TASS.

"He has been arrested," the press office said, specifying that he had been placed into custody on charges of complicity in terrorist activity.

Another detained Afghan national has given a written pledge not to leave the town as a measure of restraint, the press office said, without specifying the total number of the detainees.