During the week from March 28 to April 3, seven persons suffered in armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

During the week from March 28 to April 3, 2016, seven people fell victim to the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus: four persons perished and three others were wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The death toll includes two alleged members of the armed underground and two law enforcers, all of them in Dagestan.

Explosions and terror acts

On March 29, at the 869th kilometre of the Federal Highway "Kavkaz", near the settlement of Novy Khushet, at the turn to the "Uytash", not far from the city of Kaspiysk, a police motor convoy consisting of a "Ural" truck and an "UAZ Hunter" offroader, was blown up. It was transporting the policemen seconded from Krasnoyarsk from their on duty shift at the checkpoints of Makhachkala to their permanent deployment in Kaspiysk. When they were on the road detouring Makhachkala, a double explosion occurred. As a result, Igor Mutsenik, a 35-year-old Police Senior Lieutenant from Krasnoyarsk, was killed. Evgeny Guva, a Lieutenant Colonel of Internal Troops, and a master sergeant Sergey Popov were wounded. Responsibility for the bombings was claimed by the "Islamic State" (IS), recognized as terrorist organization and banned in Russia." According to law enforcers, one of the suspects of committing the blasts was detained in the city of Dagestanskie Ogni; he was a member of the "Southern" grouping of militants. It is Nariman Bashirov, who had been wanted in connection with the shelling of policemen in April 2014.

On March 30, near the checkpoint at the village of Sirtich, Tabasaran District of Dagestan, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) tried to stop a VAZ-2110 car, which was moving from the Suleiman-Stalsky District, but the latter tried to escape. When law enforcers caught up with the suspects, an explosion occurred. A Police Major Gasan Mutalibov, 33, who worked as a district policeman was killed; and a Police Sergeant Terlan Akhmedov was wounded. The exploded car contained charred remains of two men; one of them was identified as Sheikhmagomedov; the other – as a native of Azerbaijan Gadjiev Elchin Nurmagomed-Ogly. Presumably, they were militants from the "Southern" grouping. The blasts were organized by the IS unit in Northern Caucasus, said one of militants-supporting websites.

Detentions

On March 29, three houses of mountainous Dagestani villagers were searched by agents of the Regional MIA jointly with the republic's law enforcers. As a result, a large amount of ammunition and explosive means were found and confiscated. The owners of the houses were brought to police stations; and criminal cases were initiated against them.

Kidnappings

On March 31, the house of the poet and singer Hussein Betelgeriev, located in the neighbourhood of Kalinin in the city of Grozny, was visited by two unidentified men dressed in black uniform. "The men were not armed; and Hussein sat into their car by himself. Some 10-15 minutes later, I called him, but his phone was switched off," said his wife Karima Betelgerieva. Since then, nothing is known about him. On April 2, Karima filed an application about the disappearance of her husband to the Leninskiy ROVD (District Interior Division) of Grozny.