Kyrgyzstan"s former interior minister was...

The news agency said Moldomusa Kongantiyev was arrested in a special operation of Kyrgyz national security committee agents and Russian law-enforcement officers, but did not specify the date of the detention.

Russian and Kyrgyz officials declined to comment on the report.

Kongantiyev was apparently captured by protesters as he tried to appease a mass rally in the Kyrgyz city of Talas on April 6. He was later shown alive but beaten up in a television report. His subsequent location was unknown, with some media reporting that the ex-minister fled to Kazakhstan.

Large-scale anti-government protests swept Kyrgyzstan after the protests in Talas, claiming the lives of at least 80 people and leading to the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who has since taken refuge in Belarus.

MOSCOW, April 26 (RIA Novosti)