Religious gatherings of customs officers exposed in Tashkent (video)

An illegal religious community involving three customs officers and a student was exposed in Tashkent during an operation conducted by the State Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This was reported by the State Security Service.

The operation revealed that 17 citizens, including three customs officers, a student from Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies, a deputy director of a technopark, a deputy director of a private driving school, traders at the "Sergeli-avto" market, and others, gathered under the pretext of eating at a national cuisine canteen in the capital. They organized illegal public gatherings using various religious literature.

Most of the participants, born between 1976 and 2001, are originally from Namangan and currently reside in Tashkent.

It was discovered that the deputy head of the Customs Committee's department was fanatically devoted to religion and had been regularly organizing these informal religious classes since 2021. He collected a fee from the community members for each session and gave it to the teachers.

The group received online religious lessons via Telegram from an individual born in 1989 in Namangan who is currently in Egypt. Additionally, they attended offline religious lectures given by a student from Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies.

A criminal case has been initiated under Article 216 of the Criminal Code (Illegal formation of public associations or religious organizations) against the deputy head of the Customs Committee, an operational officer, a senior inspector of customs bodies, the student involved, and the individual conducting online religious lessons from Egypt.

The other participants have been involved in the investigation as suspects in the criminal case.

It should be noted that earlier, in the Boysun district of the Surkhandarya region, a person born in 1989 with secondary education was imprisoned for illegally giving religious lessons to children for a fee of 500,000 to 1,000,000 soums per year.