Moscow/Bishkek  - The head of the secret service in the central-Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan has said that the country should re-introduce the death penalty, in a bid to stem rising criminality and extremism, the Ria Novosti news agency reported Wednesday.

Murat Sutalinov added his voice to that of secretary of the Kyrgyz security council Adahan Madumarov, in calling for the reintroduction of capital punishment, which had been abolished in 2007.

Also on Wednesday, Interfax reported that the security council was considering banning the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamist organization believed to have some 10,000 members in the country.

Landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. In 2005 the so-called Tulip Revolution saw the rise to power of current president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Kyrgystan has experienced fewer problems with religiously motivated terrorism than its neighbour Uzbekistan. dpa