BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan’s security forces on Saturday shot dead an Azeri man who tried to detonate a suicide belt near a shopping mall in the capital Baku, the state security service said.

Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, a secular Muslim country with a population of about 10 million, is a major energy producer in the Caspian Sea region.

“Azeri citizen Azizagaoglu Emin Jami (born 1978) ... was killed during a special operation carried out by the state security service,” the service said in a statement.

It said Jami had been convicted and jailed in 2007 for being active in a terrorist organization.

“Since his release earlier this year he has been planning terrorist acts in Azerbaijan,” the security service said. It gave no further information.