Two local residents kidnapped in south-east Chechnya

Two brothers, residents of the Chechen city of Shali, were kidnapped by local power agents. Their fate and whereabouts are unknown. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from an activist of a local NGO, who referred to brothers' relatives.

According to his story, the incident took place last Friday, on March 26: "In the morning of that day, in Shali, several dozens of power agents rushed into the house, where the family of local residents Soltageriev lives. With no explanations, they caught and took away nobody knows where Islam, 32, and Said-Pasha, 30, Soltageriev. This information was granted by close relatives of the kidnapped young men," the correspondent's source asserts.

According to his version, there are no explanations to what happened. "What power agency the kidnappers were from, and what their motives and aims of brothers' kidnapping were - it's absolutely unclear," said the human rights activist.

Relatives of the kidnapped persons also told that a couple of years ago, the Soltageriev middle brother - Said-Hussein - was captured by power agents; and for three months he was kept in custody and exposed to torture. After his release, he was forced to go abroad.

The law enforcement bodies of the republic refrained from any comments on this occasion. Their spokesman said that he had heard nothing about the Shali kidnappings.

"If these Shali residents have been detained, it means that there were serious grounds to do so; and in that case we can't speak about kidnapping. Now, is not year 2000 or something, when people disappeared by hundreds. The today's situation is absolutely different. One should also mind that relatives of detained militants or of their helpers, as a rule, immediately push the panic and agiotage around the incident and never say that they were bandits," the militiaman said.