Member of banned Islamist party detained in Kazakhstan

ASTANA, April 17 (RIA Novosti) - A member of radical Islamist political party Hizb-ut-Tahrir, banned in Kazakhstan, has been detained in the central Asian republic's capital Astana, the Kazakh Interior Ministry said Monday.

According to the ministry, the activist from the town of Kentau in the south of the country was employed as a worker at a construction company in the capital.

"The police have seized extremist literature from the detainee," the ministry's press office said.

Criminal proceedings have been launched, the ministry's press office said.

The mission of Hizb-ut-Tahrir is to remove all non-Islamic governments and to establish a global caliphate, or a united Muslim state.