Dagestani Mothers Protest Abductions

RIA Novosti reported on August 4 that units of the Dagestani Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) special-purpose troops came across a criminal group in the Dagestani village of Kadyrkent on August 2, and killed four militants in a shoot-out. An officer of the FSB’s main intelligence directorate died and one policeman was injured in the battle. The news agency reported that a policeman was killed in Dagestan’s Sergokalinsky district as he was driving to work on August 4 after unidentified attackers fired on his car. According to RIA Novosti, it was the second attack on a law-enforcement officer in the Sergokalinsky district. Reuters reported on August 3 that a rebel was killed when commandos raided an apartment building in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala. According to the news agency, the raid followed the discovery nearby of a car filled with explosives. Three other rebels surrendered to police in the incident. Meanwhile, the deputy head of local police in the town of Buinaksk, Abdulmashid Rasulov, was shot dead from a car as he was walking to work. Reuters reported that he had previously been targeted by militants.

Meanwhile, Kavkazky Uzel reported on August 3 that the “Mothers of Dagestan” organization was holding a demonstration in Makhachkala to protest the kidnappings in the republic. According to the website, a group of mothers of kidnapping victims announced a hunger strike that they said they would continue until Dagestani President Mukhu Aliev received them. According to the “Mothers of Dagestan,” 22 people have been abducted in Dagestan, of whom four were found, one was murdered, two are in the hands of the authorities and being tried and one was ransomed. The protesters adopted a resolution stating: “An anti-constitutional and illegal undercover militarized body operating in Dagestan is abducting people in violation of the constitution. These people either disappear without a trace or after some time, emerge in torture chambers of the law-enforcement bodies where they ‘confess” under duress.” The resolution also demanded the resignations of Dagestan’s chief prosecutor and Interior Minister, punishment for all those guilty of killings and abductions and revocation of the law “On banning Wahhabism and other extremist activities in the Republic of Dagestan.” (See Mayrbek Vachagaev’s article below.)