Rights defenders ask Dagestani authorities to investigate pogroms in Khadjalmakhi

In the Dagestani village of Khadjalmakhi people's militia units are lynching local Salafi Muslims, which demands urgent intervention of the leadership of Dagestan and the General Prosecutor's Office. This was stated on August 26 by activists of human rights organizations in their open letter to the Acting Head of Dagestan and heads of local and federal law enforcement bodies.

The authors, who referred to applications received from villagers, stated that at night on August 4 militias burned down three houses in Khadjalmakhi; on August 2 they did the same with the house of the earlier killed woman Umiyum Rabadanova, and made pogroms in two other houses, from where they stole foodstuffs and other things.

The situation in the village began heating up in March 2013, when residents held a gathering, where they agreed that the villagers whose relatives are searched and those, who, in the opinion of the rally, were militants' helpers, should leave the village.

"Later, the local council decided that all the villagers professing the Salafi trend of Islam should abandon the village or stay there, provided they publicly repent for their beliefs in the local mosque," the authors of the letter write.

According to their story, seven residents Khadjalmakhi were killed since March 2013. Casualties' relatives stated that they were lynched by militias.

Let us remind you that in March a so-called "execution list" was spread in Khadjalmakhi, containing 33 names of Salafi Muslims living in the village – they were not on the wanted list.