Dagestan commemorates 1996 terror act victims in Kaspiysk

On November 15, in Makhachkala, the National Library hosted a memorial evening to honour the victims of the terror act committed in Kaspiysk in 1996. In Kaspiysk, people held a memorial rally and laid flowers at the memorial to the victims. Participants of the memorial events recalled their deceased relatives and talked about the need to confront terrorism.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 16, 1996, the first major terror act in the history of Dagestan occurred in Kaspiysk in the house No. 58 in Lenin Street, where mostly border guards lived with their family members. The terror act killed 68 people, including 21 children.

Elena Zalova, Major of Medical Service, who took part in the memorial evening, said that she was on duty at the time of the terror act and that fact saved her life. However, her husband and three sons, 11, 8 and 5 years old, were killed under the collapsed house.

Till present, the criminals, guilty for the terror act, have not yet been found. According to investigators, the terrorists took revenge on the border guards for their refusal in passage of a large consignment of weapons or drugs across the border with Azerbaijan.

In 2003, the Russian FSB Department for Northern Caucasus reported that the investigation into the case on the terror act had been suspended for failure to identify the guilty persons. The ruins of the collapsed house were demolished. On its place, a memorial needle was built and names of the victims were carved on memorial stones around it, the "Bulletin of the Caucasus" reports.

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