Dushanbe - Police in the central Asian republic of Tajikistan have arrested around 40 followers of an alleged Islamist fundamentalist, a spokesman for the interior ministry said Wednesday.

The arrests came at a mosque during prayers, and included the head of a banned extremist organisation.

The grouping, called the Salafiya Movement, calls for a fight to extinguish "putrid Western Civilisation."

Authorities in the capital, Dushanbe, reckon there are around 20,000 adherents to the movement in Tajikistan, where Islamists found guilty of "religious extremism" can face at least eight years in prison.

The Supreme Court of the poorest of the former Soviet republics in January banned the movement, accusing it of conspiring against the state.

The mountainous country, which borders Afghanistan, has for a long time functioned as a retreat for the Taliban, and the authorities in Dunshabe says Islamists in Pakistan and Yemen have also trained there.

From 1992-1994 a civil war raged between secular ex-communists and Islamist fundamentalists, leaving tens of thousands dead. (dpa)