MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. The security forces foiled the activity of the Al-Takfir wal-Hijra extremist group (outlawed in Russia) in the Karachay-Circassian Republic in the North Caucasus and detained five group members, the press office of Russia’s Interior Ministry told TASS on Tuesday.

"The personnel of the Interior Ministry’s Center for Combatting Extremism in the Karachay-Circassian Republic, acting jointly with the republican division of the FSB [Federal Security Service] and with the support of the Russian National Guard thwarted the activity of a cell of the Al-Takfir wal-Hijra international religious extremist organization recognized as extremist and outlawed in Russia by a decision of Russia’s Supreme Court dated September 15, 2010," the press center said.

Five members of the extremist group who are residents of the Karachay-Circassian Republic have been detained, it said.

"The members of the criminal group were spreading the ideas of radical Islam and making attempts under the threat of physical abuse to remove officials of municipalities from their posts and nurturing plans to create a state with Sharia rule on the territory of the North Caucasian region," the Interior Ministry added.

The police and security forces searched the suspects’ houses and seized firearms, bladed weapons, ammunition and religious extremist literature from the members of the extremist organization. Investigators are pressing criminal charges under part 2, article 282.2 (‘organizing the activity of an extremist group’) and part 1, article 222 (‘the illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, delivery or bearing of arms, basic parts of firearms and ammunition’) of Russia’s Criminal Code, the ministry said.

All the detained suspects have been taken into custody. Possible accomplices of the extremist organization are being identified, it said.