In Makhachkala, mosque attendant reports on mass detentions of believers

In Makhachkala, law enforcers have detained at least 200 believers of the mosque located in Hungarian Fighters Street. This was reported by an attendant of the mosque. The Dagestani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reports having no information about the detentions.

According to the mosque attendant, even before the prayer, "up to 100 policemen gathered around the mosque and its approaches." "About a dozen of patrol-and-post services (known as PPS), two PAZ buses, and vehicles without state registration numbers arrived. Some officers also came. Although everyone knows: nothing illegal occurs at the mosque and it is not visited by radically-minded people," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Mukhamad Magomedov, an attendant of the mosque.

At 2:20 p.m., the detentions were still ongoing, and the police blocked Gagarin Street. In the yards of the houses from the direction of the "Smolyan" Restaurant, law enforcers were detaining the people leaving the mosque, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

It should be noted that this is not the first time when believers complained about being detained by the police. On March 25, the official representative of the mosque reported that people were detained both before prayer and after prayer at the exit of the building. The police did not confirm the information about the detentions then. Meanwhile, a number of Salafi mosques were closed in Dagestan.

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