TASHKENT. Jan 19 (Interfax) - Two Uzbek citizens have been arrested in Tashkent on suspicion of promoting terrorist groups' ideas and recruiting new members to fight for such organizations in Syria, the Uzbek Interior Ministry's press service said on Thursday.
"Two residents of the country were arrested in the capital of Uzbekistan during a joint operation conducted by officers of the National Security Service and the Interior Ministry," it said.
Investigators have established that the detained men used social networks to keep in touch with the emissaries of the religious terrorist organizations Tawhid wal-Jihad and Tahribi Tolibon (both banned in Russia), the press service said.
The two were paid to recruit Uzbek citizens as new members of these groups and subsequently sent them to Syria to fight there.
Police have information about twenty-three people who were in contact with the detained men.
"Twenty-three citizens of Uzbekistan influenced by extremist ideas have been identified during the investigation," the press service said.
As many as 200 pieces of literature banned in Uzbekistan were confiscated from the detained men as material evidence, it said.
Criminal cases were opened against the suspects on charges of violating Uzbekistan's constitutional system, the production and spread of materials that pose a threat to public security and public order, and the establishment of, leadership in, and participation in religious, extremist, separatist, fundamentalist, and other outlawed organizations.