Bosnian police raid radical Muslim stronghold

Tue Feb 2, 2010 1:40pm EST

* Operation said to be largest since end of 1992-95 war

* Raid followed up December terrorism indictment

* Foreign Islamic fighters formed community in village

(Adds diplomat, details)

By Maja Zuvela

SARAJEVO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Bosnian police raided a village which is home to followers of the radical Wahhabi branch of Islam on Tuesday, targeting people whom authorities suspect of destabilising the fragile Balkan country.

Codenamed "Light", the operation by 600 police officers in the northern village of Gornja Maoca was the largest since the end of the country's 1992-95 war, said Boris Grubesic, a spokesman for the prosecutor who ordered the swoop.

"Seven people were arrested, including the local community leader Nusret Imamovic, and the police have seized some evidence, a large cache of weapons and ammunitions, as well as CDs and DVDs," Grubesic said.

One of the detainees was not a Bosnian citizen, he added.

One foreign diplomat in Bosnia said Tuesday's raid was a follow up to a Bosnian court indictment in December of a group of radical Muslims on charges of terrorism and arms trafficking.

Prosecutors said that group had bought and possessed weapons and explosives and had video recordings of people being trained in the use of arms and combat activities to carry out an attack.

"The primary concern was the connection to these alleged terrorists who were arrested a couple of months ago," the diplomat said.

Grubesic said Tuesday's operation was carried out with the aim of locating and prosecuting individuals suspected of undermining the territorial integrity and constitutional order and inciting ethnic, racial or religious hatred and intolerance.

Some foreign Islamic fighters, or mujahideen, who stayed on after fighting alongside Bosnian Muslims against Serbs and Croats in the war, formed their own community in the village. They were joined by some local followers of the Wahhabi branch.

A witness told Reuters that several residents attacked reporters who tried to enter the village after the raid and broke a camera, forcing them to leave.

About 20 families of the remote mountainous village live in accordance with sharia law and their children attend an Arabic-language school which operates outside the official education system.

Most foreign fighters have left the Balkan country which is still an international protectorate.

But many young Bosnian Muslims, particularly from rural areas, have in recent years adhered to the puritanical Sunni Muslim Wahhabi sect under the influence of Islamic foreigners.

Police from both of Bosnia's autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation, as well as the national security service took part in the operation. (Additional reporting by Adam Tanner in Belgrade and Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo; Editing by Charles Dick)



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