When trying to detain suspects near the Kovcheg shopping center. One of them threw a grenade, as a result of which two policemen were killed, and the terrorists themselves were killed by return fire. The grenade explosion occurred in a room where public organizations opposed to the authorities often held their events, which opposed the concluded border agreement with neighboring Chechnya. Is this the only version of what happened? And who are they - the killed terrorists? Vasily Polonsky talks about this.

Loud sirens and numerous military equipment kept residents of the city of Nazran awake until late at night. On December 12, an explosion occurred in the largest city of Ingushetia.

An explosion occurred in the evening at the Kovcheg shopping center. According to official information, two militants tried to mine the store, but employees of the Russian Guard noticed this and tried to neutralize them. As a result, employees of the Russian Guard were wounded, and the attackers themselves were killed.

Akhmed Dzeitov, Secretary of the Security Council of Ingushetia: “Neutralized residents of the republic: Artagan Akhmedovich Khaniev, born in 1994, and Muslim Tagirovich Khashagulgov, born in 1987. They were identified by their relatives"

Friends and relatives of the attackers exchange photographs of the bodies. It is clear that both of their faces are disfigured, and they do not have any weapons.

What is known about those killed. The first, Artagan Khaniev, worked as a salesman in a shopping center. And Muslim Khashagulgova is a well-known person in the republic. Muslim is a social activist, worked as a journalist for the Internet resource MAGAS LIFE. He worked part-time as a security guard at the Kovcheg shopping center. And, according to his friends, he simply was at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

Ismail Nalgiev, lawyer for the human rights organization “March”: “It’s hard for me to say which version they will release. But it is clear that Muslim is not guilty of anything and that, most likely, he ended up there, as they say, in the wrong place at the wrong time. But this somehow sounds blasphemous. In my opinion, when any operation is performed, every life must be valued.”

The bodies of those killed have already been released to relatives. And now the funeral is taking place. According to investigators, one of the militants threw a grenade at employees of the Russian Guard, as a result of which two security forces were injured. They are now hospitalized in Moscow. The head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, is still cautious about the incident and demands to find out who exactly threw the grenade and mined the shopping center.

Yunus-Bek Evkurov, head of Ingushetia: “We need to figure out what they were doing. Find out who threw the grenade at the law enforcement officers.”

In Ingushetia, numerous rallies have recently taken place over the new border with Chechnya. Then people declared that there was no trust in the authorities. The murder of Muslim Khashagulgov can only worsen the attitude of people and authorities.

Magomed Mutsolgov, human rights activist: “Evkurov already has no authority here. People don't understand at all how he will manage after everything that happened. He sued his own people. And all public institutions and government institutions said that he was doing wrong. This incident, of course, is a grief for the family and loved ones, first of all, but it also causes its own wave of indignation.”

The special operation in Nazran caused outrage among residents of Ingushetia

Those killed during a special operation in Ingushetia were members of the family of a retired police colonel; none of them had anything to do with the militants and did not shoot at security forces, local residents said. Security forces claim that those killed swore allegiance to IS*, but there is no other confirmation of this information yet.

“No one can swear that those suspected and declared “extremists” were such in reality,” wrote activist and blogger from Mozdok Yuni Uspanov on his Facebook page.

Security forces attributed those killed to IS*

Those killed in Nazran “intended to carry out terrorist acts in crowded places and public events during the World Cup,” states the “Operational Line” resource, which supports the security forces, in a publication dated June 8.

The resource published photographs allegedly taken at the site of the special operation. The photo shows items laid out on the carpet, including weapons, ammunition, a quadcopter, computer components, a flash drive and a sheet of paper with the symbols of the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia. According to the security forces, this is the text of the oath to the leader of the Islamic State*, signed in blood. The text is written in Russian and begins with the words: “We swear allegiance to the Amir of the Faithful...”, under it there are eight male names without surnames, opposite each name there is a brown spot. The Caucasian Knot does not yet have confirmation of the authenticity of the photographs from independent sources.

Despite the assertion of the security forces that those killed were involved in IS*, this organization, as of 16.40 Moscow time on June 9, did not declare those killed in Ingushetia to be its fighters.

Murders of women residents of Ingushetia during special operations

The "Caucasian Knot" wrote about other armed incidents in Ingushetia in which women became victims. Two of them are associated with the Gardanov family. Thus, in May 2010, security forces announced that one of the leaders of the armed underground, Magomed Gardanov, was killed during a special operation in Ingushetia. Three more residents of Nazran - two women and a teenager - were wounded, one of the victims later died in hospital. The security forces declared the women accomplices of Gardanov.

On April 3, 2012, during a special operation in Nazran on Oskanova Street, five people were killed, including one woman. According to the official version, improvised explosive devices were attached to the bodies of the car passengers, who were blown up along with the car. And according to local residents, those killed were workers of a brick factory. Later, the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, met with the relatives of the victims and stated that there was no information about the involvement of three of the five killed in the armed underground.

Among those killed were the sons of Ingushetia resident Akhmed Gardanov, who demanded their rehabilitation, insisting that the young people had no relation to the militants. Investigators tried more than ten times to close the case of the shooting and bombing of a car in Nazran, but Akhmed Gardanov did not allow this to happen, Mediazona reported in December 2017.

Immediately after the incident, NAC reported that so-called “suicide belts” were found on the bodies of a man and a woman. The woman who died in the car explosion is 56-year-old Zina Velkhieva, who worked at a brick factory as a bricklayer for more than ten years. The woman was identified on the same day by her son Bekhan, although the bodies of all those killed were disfigured. “I recognized my mother in one of the fragmented corpses,” the publication quoted Bekhan as saying.

The "Caucasian Knot" monitors news about the influence of IS* on the activities of militants in the North Caucasus on a special thematic page "The Caucasus under the Crosshairs of the Caliphate"

The Congress of Teips of Ingushetia today sent to the prosecutor's office a demand for an objective investigation into the incident in Nazran, during which two people were killed, including activist Muslim Khashagulgov. The elders also decided to declare republican mourning for the dead.

As "" wrote, today to relatives gave up the body activist Muslim Khashagulgov, killed on December 12 near the Kovcheg shopping center in Nazran. About 20 people gathered near the morgue in Nazran, most of Khashagulgov’s relatives went to the funeral in the village of Sunzha, and members of the Council of Teips also went there.

On December 12, an explosion occurred near the Kovcheg shopping center. According to security sources, the suspected militants threw a grenade at the police, injuring two security forces; two of the attackers were killed during their arrest. The Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed that two security officials were injured in the explosion, without specifying information about the suspects. According to eyewitnesses, activist Muslim Khashagulgov, who worked as security for the shopping center, and salesman Khaniev were killed. Secretary of the Security Council of Ingushetia Akhmed Dzeitov confirmed today that Nazran residents Khaniev, born in 1994, and Khashagulgov, born in 1987, were killed.

The public and elders of Ingushetia declared republican mourning for the dead young people and are heading today to the funeral of Muslim Khashagulgov in Sunzha, one of the elders told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent Akhmed Barakhoev .

“Today we had a congress of teips, at which we condemned yesterday’s act of the authorities towards our youth. Everyone knew Muslim as a good, active young man who was not capable of committing an illegal act. We accepted an appeal to the prosecutor’s office demanding an objective investigation into what happened. Everyone teips signed this letter. It has already been sent to the prosecutor’s office. It has also been decided to declare republican mourning for those killed in yesterday’s incident,” said Akhmed Barakhoev.

In addition, according to him, the teip council appealed to Ingush youth to remain calm. “We called on young people to behave with restraint, as is customary in the Caucasus, to obey their elders, not to hold actions without the permission of their elders, so that there are no lynchings,” he noted.

Ingush activist Barakh Chemurziev recalled the presumption of innocence of those killed in Nazran. “They are innocent, because in our country guilt is determined only by the court,” the activist said. In his video message posted on the FortangaORG Telegram channel, Chemurziev also called on the residents of Ingushetia to go to the funeral, and on law enforcement officers to “investigate this case, bring it to the end and find the perpetrators.”

Activists questioned the official version of the incident

Activist Musa Abadiev called the incident in the Kovcheg shopping center a “provocation against public figures,” explaining that Muslim Khashaulgov was an active participant in the October protests in Magas.

According to FortangaORG, Muslim Khashagulgov worked as a security guard at the Kovcheg shopping center, and in addition, in the lawyers’ association, he provided people with free legal assistance and collaborated with the Magas-Life portal.

“He was an active participant in rallies, opposed the transfer of our lands. At the same time, he was a very peaceful, calm, reasonable guy,” Abadiev told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

Everyone who personally knew Muslim Khashagulgov characterizes him only on the positive side, wrote journalist on her Facebook page Isabella Evloeva . “Smart, sincere, with a sparkling sense of humor, adhered to pacifist views on life. Muslim was a civil activist, worked in the Association of Lawyers and provided free legal advice to the population. In addition, he recorded interviews on the Magas-Life portal, and worked part-time in the evenings in security at the Kovcheg shopping center,” she wrote.

The Kovcheg shopping center is known for the fact that local civil activists and leaders of the rally against the transfer of Ingush lands used it as a headquarters and press center, he clarified on his Facebook page Bekhan Pliev .

“Several other public organizations and media outlets also rented offices there. As a result of the above, the close attention of security forces was focused on this shopping center, and security measures were held there several times recently. Eyewitnesses say that people in uniform were on duty near the shopping center, and I assume that there was constant external surveillance. How then did it happen that an explosive device was planted unnoticed by everyone, killing people? Is this criminal sloppiness or intent? –

On the night of January 25-26, on the northeastern outskirts of the village. Sernovodskoe in the Sunzhensky district at the exit of the road leading to the village. Nagornoye, Grozny district, a joint retractable post was fired from automatic weapons from among employees of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Sunzhensky district of the Chechen Republic and the riot police of the Federal Service of the Russian Armed Forces for the Chechen Republic.

The police returned fire. Two police officers received injuries of varying severity and received the necessary medical care. The service vehicle received mechanical damage. The Siren and Fortress plans were introduced.

On January 26, during operational search and investigative activities while combing the forest area, the corpse of one of the attackers was discovered, next to whom was a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

It has been previously established that the person killed was a resident of the village. Psedakh of the Malgobek district of the Republic of Ingushetia Mansur Beltoev, born in 1995, who has been on the federal wanted list since October 13, 2017. The initiator of the search is the Malgobeksky Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation of the Republic of Ingushetia.

The attack on a mobile police post in the Sunzhensky district of Chechnya, as a result of which two security forces were wounded and one attacker was killed, was the first armed incident for the republic in 2019 and the fifth since August 2018.

On January 23, the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on the number of militants killed in 2018. Over the past year, 21 alleged members of the armed underground were killed while resisting security forces, while in 2017 there were 18, a department representative said. Thus, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic confirmed the data on the number of militants and alleged participants in the armed underground killed in 2018. Amid an increasing number of suspected militants killed, residents of Chechnya have criticized government claims of victory over terrorism in the republic.

The previous armed incident in Chechnya occurred on November 17, 2018, when a suicide bomber blew herself up near a checkpoint in Grozny. She was identified from the passports she had with her as 25-year-old Karina Spiridonova. The woman blew herself up before reaching the checkpoint, because the police saw an improvised explosive device on her and fired a warning shot, said Acting Minister of Internal Affairs for Chechnya Apti Alaudinov. However, a video of the incident published online shows that the security forces shot at the woman even before the explosion, and the explosion occurred after she fell.

Less than a week before the suicide bombing at the checkpoint, on November 11, security forces reported two young people killed near the village of Martan-Chu, suggesting that they might be involved in the armed underground. Residents of Urus-Martan, born in 1994 and 2001, according to the security forces, tried to steal a car, offered armed resistance and were killed.

In September 2018, Chechen security forces reported the killing of three suspected militants near the border with Ingushetia. The dead were identified as 35-year-old resident of Kabardino-Balkaria Anatoly Khadzhiev, 32-year-old native of Kyrgyzstan Osmanjon Kochkarov and 26-year-old resident of Ingushetia Movsar Aleroev. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Chechnya, Khadzhiev and Kochkarov were put on the wanted list as participants in hostilities in Syria. Aleroev was listed as missing for several months before the murder.

The largest attack on security forces in Chechnya over the past six months was an attack committed by a group of five young people on August 20, 2018. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, two people attacked a police station in the Shali district with knives, wounded two police officers and were killed, and another person tried to blow himself up at a traffic police post in the village of Mesker-Yurt, Shali district, but survived, and the police were not injured. That same morning in Grozny, security forces killed the driver of a car who hit three police officers. The child in the car also died.

The Islamic State terrorist organization, banned in Russia by a court, has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on police officers in Chechnya. A distinctive feature of this attack was the age of all its participants: the eldest was 18 years old, the rest of the attackers were from 11 to 17 years old.