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The Danger of Large-scale Militant Attacks Looms in Ingushetia

By Adam Bogatiryev

Recent attacks are reminiscent of a bloody raid carried out by Shamil Basayev in 2004, as the activities of irregular militant groups continue to escalate in Ingushetia and threaten to develop into large-scale armed conflict

July 13, 2008
MUZHICHI, INGUSHETIA

On the night of July 8th, Ingush militants captured a mountain village in the republic, killing three local residents, who, according to villagers, the militants accused of “betrayal of their homeland”. In Suzhensky district in the village of Ordzhonikidzevsky, unidentified individuals kidnapped a member of law enforcement. In Nesterovsky, a neighboring village, Ingush militants carried out an attack on the post of a regiment of interior ministry forces. Another attack occurred in the village of Curkhakhi in Nazranovsky district; at approximately one o’clock in the morning, an armed attack targeted the home of Bakhi Aushev, a member of the Ingushetian Federal Security Service Directorate (UFCB). The home of this special services officer was fired upon by unidentified individuals with automatic weapons and grenade launchers.

In Ingushetia, daily attacks by unknown individuals on Russian servicemen, law enforcement employees, and members of the republic’s power structure have become the norm over the past few years. Over the past week, however, authorities in the republic have been made particularly anxious by similarities to the raid which took place four years ago, on June 22, 2004. That night, militant detachments de facto captured the republic and carried out a series of bold attacks on military units and subdivisions of the Russian power structure, including the main apparatus of the republic’s federal police (MVD). About a hundred people were killed; primarily members of law enforcement, including the acting Minister of the Ingushetian Ministry of Interior Affairs, his deputy, and other highly positioned officials of the prosecutor’s office. Additionally, a large quantity of weapons were stolen. The well-known Chechen rebel Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In an effort to shed some light on the situation, the author of this article called every branch of the Ingush government on the night of June 9th, but received no substantive answers and perceived a pervasive sense of panic among the authorities. Many policemen and others against whom the militants might hold a grudge opted to spend the night with relatives instead of at their homes. All departments of the Ingushetian MVD were in a heightened state of alert.

By the next morning, however, it became clear that the situation was not a repeat of the events of the 22nd of June, 2004.

This time, the main incidents occurred in the mountain village of Muzhichi, located in the Assinovsky gorge of the Sunzhensky district. Approximately two thousand people live in the village. The fame of its beautiful countryside and virgin forests stretches beyond the borders of Ingushetia. As in all of the settlements in the region, it is surrounded by a network of Russian military subdivisions.

According to the testimony of villagers, about 30 militants emerged from the forest and entered Muzhichi on foot on July 8th at approximately 9:30pm. Members of the unit were dressed in camouflaged military uniforms and covered their faces with masks. Armed to the teeth, the militants consisted mainly of 16-20 year-old young men. The militant unit was mainly Ingush, and possibly even from the village itself, considering the use of masks. However, witnesses to the events describe representatives of other Caucasian ethnicities also being present; other than the Chechens, villagers guessed that residents of Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan were among the militants, judging by their speech.

During the evening service at the mosque (which is located next to the home of the Dudayevs, of whom the father and son were killed according to the militants’ predetermined list), the militants arrived as prayer ended and came upon about 70 villagers leaving the mosque. The militants greeted the villagers and then, drawing their weapons upon the younger men, commanded them to surrender their cellular phones and to lie on the ground. The older residents were ordered to temporarily give up their cellular phones and remain where they were.

Having gathered up employees and customers in the Daliyevs’ store, the militants led them through the rear exit into the inner courtyard of the Daliyevs’ home,
in which, according to witnesses, the militants
clearly knew their way around.

Then the militants split up into several groups to go to the “execution” addresses, leaving one militant to stand watch over the villagers at the mosque. Searching for one of the “condemned” people, the schoolteacher Khasan Torshkhoev, a group of militants visited his home. He was not home, so the militants asked where he could be found. Khasan’s brother, thinking that they needed Khasan for some kind of business, left with them to look for him.

Simultaneously, a different group of militants entered the Daliyevs’ store, at which, by sheer coincidence, was Khasan Torshkhoev. Having gathered up employees and customers in the Daliyevs’ store, the militants led them through the rear exit into the inner courtyard of the Daliyevs’ home, in which, according to witnesses, the militants clearly knew their way around.

The militants searched the house and gathered everyone under an awning and tried to discover where 25 year-old Ruslan Daliyev was. They openly announced that they had come to kill Ruslan, his father Isa, and two more residents of the village “for betraying their homeland”. According to the militants, the named individuals were accused of aiding the Russian authorities.

At this time, one of the militants identified Torshkhoev and, saying that he was a known traitor, executed him on the spot. Practically everyone with whom the author of this article spoke described Khasan Torshkhoev as “a very good person, but loose-lipped.”

After the killing of Khasan Torshkoev, the militants intended to execute the owner of the home, Isa Daliev. The militant who killed Torshkoev began to reload his now-empty assault rifle. At this time, the young granddaughters of Isa broke away from their mother and rushed to their grandfather. Their grandfather embraced them, and the commander of the militant group said that he did not want to frighten the children and gave the order to let Isa live.

Ruslan Daliyev returned home at this time. Having driven up to his house and sensed trouble, he attempted to leave, but his vehicle stalled. The militants noticed him and pulled him out of the car, taking him a short distance away and shooting him.

The third group of militants headed in the direction of 70 year-old Ibragim Chapanov’s house and killed him near his home. Since the Soviet era, the old man had been considered a “secret agent of the KGB” by the village, and for this reason there was no love lost for him upon his demise. Local residents said that he had earlier repeatedly received notes with threats and demands that he cease being an informer. “If he wasn’t an old man, he’d have been killed long ago,” the militants used to say, according to villagers.

After the attacks against those persons who had been on the list, the militant unit gathered near a store where the 70 villagers captured at the beginning of the raid were being held. Here, the villagers were read a lecture on the harmfulness of smoking tobacco and leading an indecent life. Then they were called upon to join the ranks of Jihadists and to free the land from occupying Russian forces. The locals lamented how, because of Russian forces’ constant searches and the harsh consequences imposed for keeping weapons, they had been forced to get rid of their weapons and now had none.

Before leaving, the militants apologized for the inconveniences caused and specifically for the fact that they held the village by force. In their words, they were required to do this to ensure safety for the remaining [non-targeted] residents. The armed men explained their actions by declaring that, “because you didn’t know the reason for our arrival and killing of your fellow-villagers, a tragedy could have resulted as the result of misunderstanding.” The militants returned residents’ cellular phones and left, having taken a car and food supplies from the store of the murdered Ruslan Daliyev.

Muzhichi is a rehearsal of what awaits the republic
in the near future... it appears the republic must expect to endure a series of similar actions on a growing scale.

As soon as they had left the village, the militants stopped a local resident, a deputy of a patrol-post service platoon for the security of administrative borders in the Ibragim Aushev district, who was returning from the neighboring village Alkun, and demanded that he surrender his vehicle to them. Aushev refused and was shot through the leg and left on the side of the road as the militants rode off in his vehicle. Along the way they came across another car and alerted the driver to the fact that they had wounded a man up the road, and ordered the driver to pick him up and take him to a hospital.

The raid in Muzhichi lasted for about an hour, according to witnesses. Material losses included the losses suffered by the robbed grocery store (which included broken glass) and two cars, which were later found abandoned by the edge of the forest.

Residents of the village warn that the militant raid could now lead to a mop-up operation by Russian forces and suspicion of locals in supporting or covering up the underground militant movement.

A highly-positioned official at the Ingushetian MVD commented on the incident in Muzhichi for the author of this article: “Militants who entered this village are not nourished by the holy spirit – it’s clear that in this village [Muzhichi] and among many of the populated areas there are people assisting the militants – they keep stocks of provisions, provide medical support, and fill their ranks with new recruits.”

According to the same source, Muzhichi is a rehearsal of what awaits the republic in the near future. The official, from experience and incoming information, said that it appears the republic must expect to endure a series of similar actions on a growing scale.

Adam Bogatiryev, pen name of an independent Journalist in Ingushetia.

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** it should be noted that another article, "What happened in Muzhichi?" (Prague Watchdog, July 10, 2008), provides a different perspective of many of the events described here.

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