Three killed in Chechnya, possibly involved in Ingushetia events

Three gunmen were killed in the course of a special operation conducted by federal forces in the Achkhoi-Martan district of Chechnya on July 1. This is what Caucasian Knot's correspondent was told at the republican military commandant's office. The three had been directly involved in the events in neighboring Ingushetia on June 21, according to the military. "The day before, in the course of some investigation activities conducted in the vicinity of the Samashki village, Achkhoi-Martan district, Chechnya, officers of a special unit of the Federal Security Service destroyed three gunmen from the gang of the rebel leader Doku Umarov. All the three dead men had fake ID cards on them, indicating they were officers of law enforcement agencies. There are all reasons to believe the destroyed gunmen had been immediately involved in the attack on a number of facilities in the Republic of Ingushetia on the night of July 22," an officer from the military commandant's office says. The interlocutor refused to give the surnames of the dead gunmen with reference to the secret of investigation. "Work on the search and neutralization of that gang has not yet been completed," he said.

In the meanwhile, some representatives of human rights organizations express their doubts with regard to the information which is disseminated by the military. In a conversation with Caucasian Knot's correspondent, a representative of a Chechen human rights organization who wished to remain anonymous said the following: "This is a usual practice for the Russian military to attribute some or other crimes to some already dead people, whether gunmen or civilians. After the assassination of Akhmat Kadyrov in Grozny on May 9, victorious reports were numerous, too, that the organizers of that attempt had allegedly been destroyed. To my way of thinking, this is just another bluff of the military. Take a recent example. Two days ago, all mass media (with reference to some representatives of law enforcement or security agencies) maintained that Magomed Yevloev, the chief organizer of the attack on Ingushetia, had been killed in the republic. Meanwhile, it has presently turned out that that was quite another person."