In Makhachkala, police detain gym visitors

According to policemen, in the evening of August 16, they detained visitors of a gym to check their IDs. This is not the first police raid around gyms in the city, the "Chernovik" (Draft) reports. Earlier, according to the edition, the police have explained similar raids by the fact that gyms were visited mainly by men with beards.

On August 15, policemen entered the "Premium" gym in Makhachkala, when there were about 50 people there. According to the trainees, they refused to voluntarily go to the ROVD (District Interior Division), since the policemen did not explain the reason for their demand to go with them.

As a result, all the visitors of the gym were brought to the ROVD.

"They will be released immediately after their identification," commented on the situation a source from the Dagestani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) as quoted by the "Chernovik". The source has failed to mention the direct cause of the detention of the gym visitors.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Dagestan, law enforcers often pay attention to men with beards. When a man wears a beard and shaves moustaches, law enforcers treat that as one of the signs of adherence to the Salafi concept of Islam. At the beginning of 2016, in Dagestan, Salafis started to hold regular protest actions because of their dissatisfaction with the situation in the republic when law enforcers preventively registered Salafis at the police stations and systematically closed the mosques in which they prayed.

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