Dagestan: Tsibari villagers demand to punish school arsonists and killers of teacher

On June 3, residents of the village of Tsibari, the Tsuntin District of Dagestan, came out to hold a rally, demanding to punish those who at night on June 1 killed a teacher and burned down the village school. The villagers were ready to take up arms and lynch the criminals, said Gusen Magdiev, the head of the Tsuntin District.

At night on June 1, in the village of Tsibari, Zairbek Gazimagomedov, a resident of the village and a local teacher, was shot dead; later, the building of the rural schools was set on fire. Some time later, a group of unidentified criminals attacked a school in the village of Tsyntuk (Zinduk), located 6.5 kilometres off Tsibari.

About 40 Tsibari villagers took part in the above rally. "People were outraged by inaction of law enforcement bodies. Neither sweeping of the area, nor searches were undertaken. After the tragedy of that night, just four OMON (riot police) fighters came to the village from the district centre. People wanted to find the killers and lynch them themselves; however, the head of the district managed to calm them down," Magomed-Rashid Djamalov, the head of the Shaurin rural settlements, which includes Tsibari, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The participants of the rally "were outraged by the arrogance and brutality of the criminals," said Gusen Magdiev, the head of the Tsuntin District. "They demanded to punish the criminals, otherwise they were ready themselves to take up arms and lynch them," said Magdiev. "Locals know who had gone to the forest; they know their relatives. I explained to them that this was not the proper method. There power agents, who are and will be liquidating the bandits. The difficulty is that they are sitting in the forests, which cover 52,000 hectares in our district. But sooner or later they will be caught."

According to his story, the teacher Zairbek Gazimagomedov "did not approve the calls of extremists for jihad; he condemned their actions and received threat already a month ago.

As suggested by Abdula Tagirov, the deputy head of the municipal formation "Tsuntin District", militants had burned the school down in order to intimidate the local population.