Terrorists leader, two group members killed in Dagestan
MOSCOW. April 3. KAZINFORM The leader of a group of terrorists and two members of the group were killed in a special operation in Dagestan, National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAC) Information Centre spokesman Nikolai Sintsov told Itar-Tass.
"On Friday, at 21:30 Moscow time, law enforcement officers during a raid to neutralise members of the bandit underground at the 7th km of the Makhachkala-Buinaksk road in the Kumtorkala district of Dagestan attempted to stop a Lada Priora car, in which there were bandits. Fire was opened on the law enforcement officers. The gunmen were killed in the return fire," the NAC official said; Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass.
The bodies of Yahya Aslanov, the leader of the "Karabudakhkent" subversive and terrorist group, and two members of the same group - Batrutdin Salimov and federal-search-wanted Rustam Batyrov were in the car.
"According to intelligence information, they are involved in numerous terrorist crimes and also money extorting from businessmen of the villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi," Nikolai Sintsov said. In particular, they participated in the terrorist act committed by Vitali Razdobudko and his common-law wife Maria Khorosheva in the village of Gubden, the Karabudakhkent district, on February 14. According to law enforcement authorities' information, they participated in shooting attacks against policemen.
Besides, according to the NAC, they were involved in robbery and banditry on roads under the guise of law enforcement officers, the murder of hunters near Gubden and the explosion in a grocery store in Buinaksk.
"Today as well Aslanov's brother is detained, who also provided complicity assistance. A laptop, in which, according to security officials, there is information important for operative work, is seized from him," the NAC spokesman said.
The explosions near the village police station in Gubden in February this year killed three people and injured 26. The first explosion was committed by a young woman stopped by a serviceman of the Russian Interior Ministry's troops. Later, when investigators were working on the scene, a Lada Priora attempted to run through a police post, and when the car was stopped for identity checking, there was a second blast equivalent to up to 40 kg of TNT. Immediately after that, the post was fired on from the forest.