Participants of rally in Nazran complain of law enforcers' pressure

The Ingush activists, Ismail Nalgiev, Bagaudin Khautiev and Khasan Katsiev were summoned to the Centre "E" (Centre for Combating Extremism – CCE) and interrogated by law enforcers. The questions concerned the mourning rally on February 23 in Nazran, at which the head of the republic was booed, the activists said.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 23, the activists, who gathered for official events on the occasion of the Fatherland's Defender Day and the 75th anniversary of Ingushes' deportation, protested against combining the holiday with the mourning. The speech of the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, was accompanied by whistles and shouts; however, loud music was used to jam the crowd's discontent.

Ismail Nalgiev, the head of the regional public organization "Ingushetia's Choice", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that psychological pressure was put on the activists during the interrogation at the CCE Centre. "They asked how much (we) were paid. I explained that we had come to the memorial like everyone else, and if the floor had been given to our elders, we wouldn't have protested," the activist said.

Khasan Katsiev, a member of the Council of Youth Organizations of Ingushetia, has also treated the call to the CCE for questioning an attempt to intimidate activists. "This is pressure on us. Employees of the Centre 'E' summon people and ask why they were present and they knew about the official event on February 23. What kind of questions were they? There were several thousand people there, why they have summoned us?" the activist was indignant.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 28, 2019 at 01:14 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.