SIMFEROPOL, February 11. /TASS/. Four followers of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization have been detained in Crimea, the republic’s Prosecutor-General Natalya Poklonskaya told TASS on Thursday.

"During the investigation of the criminal case, four suspects were held," Poklonskaya said. "Specifically, this concerns the organization which is considered as a terrorist one, Hizb ut-Tahrir."

The terrorist group was active in Crimea’s resorts of Yalta and Alushta, she said.

A criminal case has been opened into terrorism, and a special operation is ongoing.

"This is a terrorist organization," Poklonskaya said, adding that the law enforcement bodies were not focusing on the detained persons’ nationalities.

Ukraine’s mass media reported earlier on Thursday that searches were held in the houses of Crimean Tatars in various cities of the Black Sea Peninsula.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international religious and political organization founded in 1953 in Jerusalem. Its goal is to remove all the non-Islamic governments and bring back the Muslims to the "truly Islamic life."

Russia’s Supreme Court banned Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2003 declaring it a terrorist organization.