In Chechnya, law enforcers detain young people because of their appearance, local residents report

In Chechnya, local residents report that within recent days, law enforcers regularly detain in the streets and interrogate young people as suspected followers of radical Islam. According to the local residents, the law enforcers persecuted men wearing beards and women in hijabs. Officials from the law enforcement bodies explain the situation by taking preventive measures.

In Grozny and other major towns of Chechnya, law enforcers conduct "anti-Wahhabism raids" and check mobile phones of young men and women. This was reported by local residents.

On January 15, in Grozny, Ramzan Kadyrov held another meeting and invited the chiefs of law enforcement units. At the meeting, the Chechen leader has once again said that the republic "should be free of any spirit of Wahhabism."

"We should give no chances to various pseudo-ideologists of Wahhabis, who have neither secular, nor religious education, to take over the minds of our young people," the leader of Chechnya has stated.

Till present, human rights organizations have not received any complaints about law enforcers' unlawful actions from local residents, who have been detained by law enforcers. This was reported by a leader of one of the Chechen NGOs, who preferred to remain anonymous.

The source treats the law enforcers' actions as a gross violation of citizens' rights.