03:50, 11 March 2016

Driver: attackers on JMG van spoke Russian with accent

Burnt car of the members of the "Committee against Torture" (CAT). March 10, 2016. Photo courtesy of Djambulat Ozdoev, Ombudsman of Ingushetia

The minivan of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) in Ingushetia was followed from Karabulak, in the outskirt of which the JMG office is located, said the driver of the minivan. According to his story, after the forced stop, he was the first to take the attackers' blow, when he refused to open the door of his minivan.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 9, eight rights defenders and journalists, as well as the driver of the JMG minivan, were attacked and beaten up on their way to Grozny. On that very night the office of the JMG in Ingushetia was attacked.

According to the driver, a local named Bashir Pliev, the van was first cut up, and he had to stop it; then the attackers dragged him out and started beating him, demanding to open the door into the to the passenger compartment.

There were "some 20-25 attackers," he said, who spoke Russian, but with a strong accent.

Pliev has added that he is a category II invalid; and earnings from transporting people in his van helped him to maintain his family with three children.

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

Source: CK correspondent