At least four local Shi'ite Muslims and two police officers died on November 26 in violent clashes in the settlement of Nardaran, 25 kilometers northeast of Baku. Fourteen people, including the charismatic young theologian Taleh Bagirzade and three other members of the Movement for Muslim Unity he founded in January, were taken into custody. In a subsequent joint statement, Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry and Prosecutor-General's Office said Bagirzade, together with Elmar Agayev, Zulfuqar Mikayilov, and Abulfaz Bunyatov, created the Movement for Muslim Unity with the aim of overthrowing the constitutional order and establishing "a religious state under Shari'a...
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