Armed incident in Sunzha District was the fifth during the year involving law enforcers in Ingushetia

The shelling of a car in Ingushetia, where three policemen were wounded, became the eleventh armed incident in the republic since the start of 2018 and the fifth one with the participation of law enforcers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 12, three policemen were wounded, when the car of Ibragim Eldjarkiev, the head of the Ingush Centre for Combating Extremism, was shelled. Eldjarkiev himself was not hurt. Doctors rated the health condition of one of the wounded policemen as grave, and that of the two others – as moderate.

The previous conflict involving law enforcers occurred in Ingushetia on December 12, 2018, when an explosion occurred near the "Kovcheg" Shopping Centre in Nazran. Two policemen were hospitalized after the explosion of a grenade, which the suspects threw at them during detention. According to law enforcers, the attackers were militants; they were killed at detention. Later, eyewitnesses reported that Khaniev, a seller of fragrances, and Muslim Khashagulgov, the head of the security service of the shopping centre and a civil activist were killed.

Earlier, on June 8, 2018, another armed clash occurred in Nazran. According to law enforcers, they blocked two militants and offered them to surrender, but they opened fire. In a shootout, one of the alleged militants was killed. Then, a counterterrorist operation (CTO) was carried out, during which, according to the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), two more militants were killed. Eyewitnesses reported that two guys and their mother were killed, while the third alleged militant, their father, surrendered. According to the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, the casualties had prepared terror acts on the Muslim holiday of Uraza-Bayram.

On May 16, 2018, an attempt was made on an employee of the Prosecutor's Office in Sunzha. A grenade explosion wounded a law enforcer, who was nearby.

On February 10, 2018, the CTO regime was introduced in Ingushetia. According to law enforcers, in a forest near the village of Ali-Yurt in the Nazran District, natives of Dagestan, Abdulla Askhabov and Yunus Ibadiev, rendered armed resistance to law enforcers and were shot dead.

Six more armed incidents that happened in Dagestan since the start of 2018 were not related to attacks on law enforcers.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 13, 2019 at 01:32 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.