Magomed Sultygov: Ingush leaders know that woman killed during special operation was innocent

The leadership of Ingushetia is aware of innocence of Zina Velkhieva, who was killed during a special operation, and the leader of the republic took investigation into the circumstances of her death under his personal control. This was reported today on behalf of Yunus-Bek Evkurov by Magomed Sultygov, the head of the municipal district of Plievo, who visited the family of the deceased woman.

On April 3, at about 9:00 p.m., in Oskanov Street in Nazran, during special operation, officers of the FSB Department in Ingushetia killed five persons, including one woman. According to the official version, her body and the body of another passenger of a car bore attached improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that were installed for anti-removal.

On April 4, the remains of the body of the deceased woman were given to her relatives for burial. This was noted in the message of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", which was received by the "Caucasian Knot" edition's office.

On April 5, son of Zina Yunusovna Velkhieva, born in 1955, appealed to the HRC "Memorial" and asked to assist in protecting honour and dignity of his dead mother. He also reported on the visit of Magomed Sultygov, the head of the municipal district of Plievo, to the house of the Velkhiev family.

According to her son, Zina Velkhieva worked as a general labourer at a brick factory. "On that day, service transport of brick factory, which drove the workers back home, delayed, and my mother went home with Salman Gardanov, who arrived there in his VAZ-2107 car of white colour and brought to the work his nephew Umar. Together with them, Buruzhev, Djuneid Gardanov, and Shamsudin Gardanov, also stepped into the car near the brick factory. They are workers of the brick factory. All together, they headed towards the village of Plievo," reports the statement of the son of the deceased woman, which was posted by Magomed Mutsolgov on his blog on the "Caucasian Knot".

The relatives learned from eyewitnesses how the people had been killed. At about 9:00 p.m., in Oskanov Street, near the post building, the VAZ-2107 car belonging to Salman Gardanov was blocked from both sides by two Lada Priora cars without license number plates. Unidentified people in the cars opened intense fire from automatic weapons at the Gardanov's car. After the Gardanov's car stopped, the attackers came out of their cars and once again fired at the car from all sides.

After some time, the place was approached by power agencies units. At about 10:00 p.m., they blew up the Gardanov's together with the bodies in it.

On April 4, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, the leader of Ingushetia, met representatives of the republic's power agencies to discuss the outcome of the special operation.

"This incident has been widely discussed in the republic, and there are statements about the fact that the number of killed people includes innocent victims, who by random appeared to be fellow passenger to militants. This information will be checked. However, in this regard, I would like to say that militants change their tactics every time and worked it out thoroughly. They use a shield cover their friends, neighbours, and relatives, who actually may not know about activities of that person," said Yunus-Bek Evkurov.

The meeting also announced the names of the killed persons: they are Salman Gardanov, Shamsudin Gardanov, Djuneid Gardanov, Salaudin Muruzhev, and Zina Velkhieva.