A special operation for the search for militants who killed a Russian family in Karabulak on October 14 continued throughout last week in Ingushetia. A series of murders of the Slavic population is one of the sad signs of the tactic of actions of the current members of illegal armed forces. The latest murder is amazing because of its cruelty and cynicism. The militants, attacking in black masks, started firing at unarmed civilians in the daytime in the eyes of numerous witnesses.
This mass murder was not the first one in Ingushetia. The most appalling facts of murders of Russian people were the murder of chief doctor of the hemotransfusion station, Natalia Mudrakova (September 7, Nazran), the murder of members of the family of teacher Vera Draganchuk (August 31, Karabulak), the murder of the family of teacher Terekhinam consisting of a mother with two children (July 17, Ordzhonikidzevskaya of Sunzhensky District). President of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, promised to find organizers and actors of these murders. However, they have not been found and continue to go unpunished.
Normalization of the situation in the republic was not helped even by additional units of Interior Forces with a strength of up to 2,500 servicemen that stayed in Ingushetia for two months. Last week, they were removed from the republic due to the obvious low efficiency of actions.
Low results of actions of soldiers of the Interior Forces are manifested by the fact that last Sunday, a group of local residents managed to disarm a group of servicemen of the Interior Forces who were examining cars at one of the checkpoints of the Malgobeksky District. According to a witness, several young men discontent with the actions of the servicemen quarreled with the soldiers and the quarrel grew into a fight. As a result, the checkpoint was taken and the servicemen were beaten. The gathered civilians surrounded two combat infantry vehicles and a Ural standing at the checkpoint and nearly set them on fire. Local policemen who arrived at the incident persuaded the youths to leave the post and to release the servicemen.
Observers point out that local police in Ingushetia are inefficient and corrupt. Personnel reshuffles among the top-ranking officers of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia took place last week. Re-attesting of all policemen in Ingushetia is underway. Ingushetia was inspected by Alexander Bastrykin, Senior Deputy General Prosecutor and chair of the investigating committee of the prosecutor’s office. Official spokesperson for the investigating committee, Vladimir Markin, reported that participants of the meeting with participation of top-ranking officials of the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service branch of Ingushetia, as well as operational group of the federal Interior Ministry and Prosecutor of Ingushetia “analyzed the current situation in the republic taking into account the recent incidents and issued certain instructions regarding increase of efficiency of investigation into the latest appalling crimes.”
Meanwhile, the bad situation is registered not only in Ingushetia. After the end of the holy month of Ramadan, militants grew more active in Chechnya and Dagestan. According to a representative of the press center of the operational staff for the antiterrorist operation in the Chechen Republic, incumbent leader of militants and president of so-called Ichkeria, Doku Umarov, wants to gather the remaining militants in Chechnya hoping for cash flows from abroad. It is reported that these are his militants who act in the “hot spots” of the North Caucasus now. The military is concerned by the rumors circulating among the population and saying that “in the next few months, militants may undertake a number of large-scale offensive actions to demonstrate their real capabilities.”
