About 30 bearded men, including a journalist, were detained by Tajik police on Saturday in the country's capital, Dushanbe.
Shukhrat Shodiyev, a reporter for the Asia-Plus news agency, was released two hours later.
The police gave no reason for the detentions.
All the detainees were formally identified, fingerprinted and photographed.
Interior Ministry chief of staff Maj. Gen. Takhir Normatov said the police officers had followed the ministry's orders.
"We have a right to detain any person. Those who wear a beard must have ID pictures with a beard," he said, adding that police were instructed to make sure that a person is property identified.
He said document checks were carried out as part of a manhunt for "especially dangerous criminals."
Ministry spokesman Mahmadullo Asadulloev previously said a campaign against men with long beards had begun. He said, however, it only targeted suspected followers of Salafism, an extreme form of Islam.
Asadulloev said that all "suspicious men" detained during the campaign would be freed after they were questioned, listed, and fingerprinted.
DUSHANBE, January 8 (RIA Novosti)
