In Buinaksk, staff member of organization "Pravozaschita" detained

On May 6, Zarema Bagautdinova from the Dagestani regional organization "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy) was detained by policemen when she tried to make a video record with her mobile phone of the search conducted in a house of a female resident of Buinaksk. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Aisha Selimkhanova, a staff member of the organization "Pravozaschita".

Zarema Bagavutdinova has been already released from the police station; however, her colleagues still cannot contact her.

Local residents have reported that in Buinaksk, power agents blew up three private houses belonging to persons suspected of connections with militants. However, officials from the Ministry of Internal Affair (MIA) have confirmed only one explosion.

Starting from May 1, in Buinaksk, power agents carry out massive searches and detain young people and their parents. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Aisha Selimkhanova, a representative of the Dagestani regional public organization (DRPO) "Pravozaschita".

"All those searches are carried out under the pretext of CTO (counterterrorist operation). During the searches, no legal documents are presented, and power agents take away Muslims and their fathers. Zarema has expressed her indignation by that fact to the head of the Buinaksk ROVD (District Interior Division). She has said that if there are any suspicions they should be against individuals and not against all Muslims," Aisha Selimkhanova has stated.

This morning, Zuleikha Karanaeva, a resident of Buinaksk, phoned Zarema Bagavutdinova and asked her to come to her to be a witness, since a search would be carried out at the house of Zuleikha Karanaeva.

While Zarema Bagautdinova and Zuleikha Karanaeva were waiting for the beginning of the search, special vehicles arrived with masked people in camouflage. The human rights defender realized that the power agents were going to blow up the house and started recording the incident on video. This was reported by Aisha Selimkhanova.

"When the power agents saw that, she was approached by a masked law enforcer who demanded to stop recording. Then, Zarema introduced herself and demanded to accompany her to the leader of the special operation. And she was accompanied to him. In his turn, the leader of the special operation also demanded to stop recording. Zarema proposed to delete the video record from her mobile phone; however, instead of that, the power agents broke her mobile phone together with flash and SIM-card and then took her away to the police station. Already at the police station, it became known that the house of Zuleikha Karanaeva was also blown up," Aisha Selimkhanova said.

When staff members of the human rights organization learned about the detention of their colleague, they phoned to the Prosecutor's Office of the republic. "At first, we were refused in accepting our oral appeal, and we contacted the Prosecutor's Office of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) and the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) in Dagestan," Aisha Selimkhanova said.

Finally, Zarema Bagavutdinova was released from the police station. However, her colleagues are still unable to contact her, since the policemen broke her mobile phone. This was explained by Fatima Tarasova, a staff member of the DRPO "Pravozaschita".

Magomed Baachilov, Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Dagestan, did not confirm to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent the information about the introduction of the CTO regime in Buinaksk and about explosions of the houses.

However, he confirmed the information about only one explosion the explosion in the house of Zaur Umarov, where an improvised explosive device (IED) was found.