In Chechnya, militaries shell Benoy village and wound a resident

At night on May 2, one of the villages of the mountainous Vedeno District of the Chechen Republic was shelled by the artillery of the federal forces. As a result of shell explosions, a man was wounded and some households were damaged.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from employees of the Information Centre of the Union of Chechen NGOs. This fact was not made public either by local authorities or power agencies.

"We've learnt from reliable sources that at night on May 2, Russian militaries exposed Benoy village of the Vedeno District to artillery shelling. At least five shells blew up in the territory of this village. It became known that shortly before the shelling a skirmish took place in this area between militants and law enforcers, then, the militaries decided to shell possible militants' hiding places. Most likely, we have here a fact of militaries' elementary negligence, whose shells hit the village," the Union's sources say.

The fact of the incident in Benoy village was confirmed at the office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Grozny.

Shakhman Akbulatov, head of the "Memorial" office in Grozny, said that Benoy residents also believe that the village was shelled by mistake.

After the incident in Benoy, officials of the authorities and militaries told local residents that the shelling was accidental, and there was no reason "to make noise." They promised to help in repairing Beisultanovs' house after May holidays under repair and to give them another car instead the damaged one," said the human rights activist.

The Republic's law enforcement bodies refrained from any comments.