AKIPRESS.COM - Uzbek police have detained a former deputy head of the country’s National Security Service, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests of senior law enforcement officials, the RFE/RL reported.

Hayot Sharifkhojaev was detained in a special raid on March 30, a police officer who took part in the operation told RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service on April 2.

Sharifkhojaev's detention was confirmed to RFE/RL by a separate source, an investigator at the Prosecutor-General's Office.

Both sources requested anonymity, saying they are not authorized to speak to the media. Each official said separately that Sharifkhojaev is being held in a police detention center in Tashkent.

Police also conducted a search of a Sharifkhojaev’s house in Tashkent’s Mirzo Ulughbek district, the sources said.

A separate search took place in the apartment of Sharifkhojaev’s former wife in the city’s Beshoghoch area, they added.

There was no official statement on the alleged arrest in the tightly controlled Central Asian country.

Uzbekistan has arrested several former senior law enforcement agency officials -- including a former top prosecutor and an ex-interior minister -- in recent months after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev repeatedly accused state institutions of corruption and exceeding their authority.

According to the sources in Tashkent, Sharifkhojaev’s alleged detention is linked to a criminal probe against former Prosecutor-General Rashid Qodirov, who was arrested on February 22 on charges including bribery and abuse of office.