House of mother of suicide bomber Mukhadiev burnt down in Chechnya

Five days ago, in the city of Argun, the house that belonged to the family of suicide bomber Rustam Mukhadiev, who had blown up himself in central Grozny near the building of the theatre-concert hall, was burnt down. Local residents say that the action was carried out by employees of power agencies of Chechnya.

A member of one of human rights organizations asserts that Mukhadiev's mother lived in that house, but relatives of the terrorist had left the house well in advance, when several days after the terror act power agents told them about Rustam's involvement in the crime and expressed threats to family members. The current whereabouts of the family members is unknown.

It proved impossible to get any comments of power agents on the incident - the head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya was on vacations, and other MIA employees stopped telephone conversations when asked to comment the arson of the house.

"Power agents poured gasoline inside and outside the house, put it on fire and did not leave until the flames captured the whole building. As a result, the house completely burnt out from inside, as well as the roof. Now, only charred walls remain from the Mukhadievs' house," a member of one of the republic's human rights organizations said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to his story, neighbours did not dare to interfere into power agents' actions.

He asserts that the practice of "taking revenge" used by power agents in relation to militants' relatives can arouse nothing but hatred to the authorities in the local population.

A woman from Argun agrees with the opinion of the human rights activist: "Punishing people for acts of others is contrary not only to Russian laws, but also to the laws of Allah, so often mentioned by our authorities."