In Grozny, local residents report on new detentions of young men

In the capital of Chechnya, power agents continue raids to detain young men, who wear beards, but shave off their moustaches. According to eyewitnesses, the young men are being detained in the yards of apartment buildings.

"On February 24, power agents took away two guys from the yard of our house. One of them is a son of my neighbour. The guys wore small beards and shaved moustaches like potential Wahhabis. Both of them were released several hours later. One of them told me that policemen checked their mobile phones and then asked them about their attitude towards Wahhabis, militants, and combatants fighting in Syria. When the policemen released them, they warned the guys to shave off their beards," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Yakha, a resident of the town of Mayakovsky of the Chechen capital.

It should be noted that after the militants' attack on Grozny that occurred on December 4, 2014, residents of Chechnya regularly report on cases of detention of young men with beards and shaved-off moustaches (in the region, such an appearance is considered as the main sign that a person is a supporter of Wahhabism). The recent wave of detentions began after the marks of the "Islamic State" (IS), an organization recognized as terrorist in Russia, appeared in Tsentaroi (Khoshi-Yurt), the native village of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and Grozny.

A source in the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has confirmed that young men "are brought to the police stations, where they are to listen to instructive debates involving theologians."

Most young men grow beards without any hint of protest. This opinion was expressed by Lida, a teacher with years of experience.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.