22:00, 21 July 2010

Prayer house destroyed in Pankissi Gorge, local residents assert

As reported by villagers of Birkiani, located in the Pankissi Gorge of Georgia, a prayer house of local followers of traditional Islam was ruined there.

One of Birkiani residents reports that a group of people came and said that "a mosque would be built in place of the prayer house," as "the old mosque is too small for them."

"We started to object, a fight burst out, but they were in majority; and they destroyed our prayer house and now started to build a mosque," the "Interfax" quotes him.

The information about the destroyed prayer house in Birkiani was also confirmed by Dzharap Khangoshvili, member of the administration Akhmet District of Georgia. The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) made no comments on the situation.

The Pankissi Gorge is in the north of Georgia and is separated from Russia only by a mountain ridge. The area is inhabited mainly by ethnic Chechens - Kistins.