By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Nine Islamists were arrested in Russia Tuesday after they attempted to take control of several mosques, police said.
The incident took place in the republic of Bashkortostan in western Russia.
“The detained individuals are suspected of trying to remove the imams of several mosques from their posts,” a police spokesman said Tuesday.
The suspects are followers of Wahhabism, a puritanical form of Islam.
Weapons, materials for making explosive devices and extremist literature were found when the suspects’ homes were searched.
Reports say there were thousands of Wahhabists and their sympathisers among the Muslim communities in Russia. Wahhabists are also believed to be behind a string of attacks on imams in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.