MOSCOW, May 28 (RAPSI) – The police have arrested a member of the banned terrorist organization, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who was recruiting Central Asians in the Moscow Region.

The Russian Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday that they arrested a 27-year-old national of Tajikistan, the leader of a Tajik criminal group that was guilty of a 900,000-ruble ($26,270) heist at a Moscow company in 2012. Three of the suspects were arrested, but their leader escaped.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a paramilitary group established in 1991 to overthrow the Uzbek government and create an Islamic state ruled by Shariah law.

In the late 1990s, IMU militants attacked government forces in southern Kyrgyzstan on several occasions, but were eventually routed by the international coalition forces in Afghanistan. Several IMU leaders fled to Pakistan, where they teamed up with local terrorist groups to overthrow the Pakistani government.