Law enforcers raid Astrakhan mosque

On December 23, law enforcers were on duty during prayer at the Red Mosque in Astrakhan, and also conducted house-to-house raids in the district where Muslims live. Such law enforcers' raid was not the first one in the city.

During the evening prayer, several law enforcers were on duty at the entrance to the mosque, Murad, a parishioner, has reported.

"I am at a loss to say what all this may have to do with. Perhaps, this is due to the terror act in Lubyanka, or because Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has come to Dagestan. Maybe this has forced our law enforcers to take some actions," he has suggested.

Earlier, Marat Bazhmaev, an Imam of one of Astrakhan mosques, reported detention of 60 people after the prayer at the "Ramadan" Mosque on November 1. According to his story, law enforcers had explained that "a group from Syria has come to the Astrakhan Region and with the aim to commit a terror act."

Imam Bazhmaev has added that since in 2015 he returned from Egypt after studying there, he has been "periodically summoned for interrogations." He has linked the detentions at the Astrakhan mosque with the practice of the so-called "prophylactic registration", which is widespread in Dagestan.