Law enforcers dispute about niqabs as camouflage method

Niqabs can be a good camouflage for criminals, given that there are no systems to identify who is underneath it, Amir Kolov, a retired Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), asserts. In his turn, Sergey Goncharov, the president of the Association of Veterans of the "Alpha" Antiterrorist Unit, has objected that niqabs were earlier used as a camouflage, including during the Chechen campaigns, but modern systems make it possible to identify the person hiding under a niqab.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 9, the Dagestani MIA informed that a Chechen native, Ali Demilkhanov (also referred to as Ali Demelkhanov), had wounded two policemen. The MIA noted that the man was wearing a niqab. Later, the Dagestani MIA refuted the information about the attack, stating that it was about a 2017 incident. Journalists have noted that the report about the search for a terrorist who is hiding by using a niqab continues the trend of fighting against religious clothing.

The retired colonel, Amir Kolov, has noted that, apart from the report about Ali Demilkhanov, who is wanted, moving around in a niqab, he has never heard of terrorists using niqabs for camouflage. He also believes that such cases could happen in future, since niqabs can be a good disguise for criminals. "As far as I know, there are no systems to identify who is hiding under a niqab," he said.

The opposite viewpoint was expressed by Sergey Goncharov, the president of the Association of Veterans of the "Alpha" Antiterrorist Unit. According to his story, he has repeatedly heard of cases of using niqabs for camouflage – both during the war in Afghanistan and during the Chechen wars. "Niqabs make identification very difficult. However, modern technologies still make it possible to identify who is wearing them," Mr Goncharov has emphasized.