Translated material
Muslim is most likely dead
Dagestan special services again eliminated the main terrorist of the republic
In Dagestan, last night it was officially announced that the most dangerous terrorist in the republic, 34-year-old Rasul Makasharipov, nicknamed Muslim, had been killed. He was identified as one of two militants killed on the outskirts of Makhachkala during a routine operation by local police. As soon as this became known, all the special services of the republic were literally delighted. “We are all very busy now, preparing messages for all newspapers and television channels. This is such a joy for us!” - said one of the employees of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan last night.In recent years, Muslim has become the most odious and almost mythical figure for local authorities. Since 2003, he led a sabotage group that deliberately hunted employees of the Dagestan special services. According to official data alone, he was responsible for at least 30 murders of operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB Directorate and the Prosecutor's Office. Since the beginning of this year, a wave of terrorist attacks, which are believed to have been organized by Makasharipov, has literally overwhelmed Dagestan and especially Makhachkala itself. Recently, bombings of police cars, trains and special services buildings have occurred there almost every day, and sometimes two or three times a day.
The good news about the destruction of Makasharipov was announced last night at a special press conference by Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia Andrei Novikov, who the day before, together with a group of employees of the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, arrived in Dagestan to lead the fight against terrorism. The separatists carried out the last series of explosions on Tuesday - in the morning they planted a bomb containing 10 kg of TNT in the center of Makhachkala and the Russian Drama Theater (fortunately, it was defused), and then in broad daylight they blew up a police stronghold (two officers were killed). And on Wednesday night, militants in the vicinity of Makhachkala blew up the Mozdok-Kazimagomed gas pipeline, which supplies gas to almost the entire North Caucasus and a significant part of Azerbaijan, for the fifth time. It was not possible to track down the terrorists. However, luck did smile on the local police yesterday - during a routine operation, which is now carried out daily in Makhachkala.
Yesterday at 7.20, employees of the Organized Crime Control Department and the Sovetsky District Department of Internal Affairs came to search a three-story cottage in the very center of Makhachkala on Gadzhiev Street, where they allegedly saw suspicious people. It was a very ordinary matter, and therefore the operatives immediately invited two witnesses from a neighboring house and calmly entered the courtyard of the cottage. Machine gun fire immediately rang out from the direction of the mansion. The special forces managed to take cover, but witnesses found themselves in the shelling zone. One man died on the spot, the second was later sent to hospital in serious condition. After the house was cordoned off, the militants holed up in the cottage threw grenades at the special forces. In this case, four policemen were wounded. When trying to break through the cordon in the courtyard of the house, two criminals were also killed. But two more militants managed to break through. They grabbed a nearby taxi and fled. Later, the taxi driver himself came to the police and said that he had taken two men at gunpoint to the southern outskirts of Makhachkala, where he was then thrown out. The search for these bandits yielded no results.
However, soon Muslim himself was unexpectedly identified as one of the dead. And during the search of the ill-fated cottage, in addition to several machine guns, they also found a machine for cutting reinforcement, with which almost all the bombs that exploded in recent months in the city were filled. The house itself, in addition, along the perimeter of the fence was also equipped with video surveillance cameras.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan yesterday firmly said that the militant killed on Gadzhiev Street was Makasharipov. He was identified both from a photograph and from his characteristic features. He was also recognized by the operatives who had interrogated Muslim at one time, and even by his mother and sister.
A native of the village of Sasitli, Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan, Makasharipov “became famous” during the militant attack on Dagestan in 1999. Then he was a translator for Basayev himself, and when an amnesty was announced, Muslim surrendered and allegedly repented. Videos of his repentance were even shown on television news. After serving a year, Makasharipov was released and again disappeared from the sight of the intelligence services. And only in 2004, detectives found out that it was Muslim who led the gang that hunted for intelligence officers, which called itself the “Janet Combat Jamaat.” They surrounded him several times, but Muslim always managed to escape. Once, he even wounded the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the republic, Muslim Dakhaev. In January 2005, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan even “buried” Makasharipov, saying that it was he who was in the house, which, after a long firefight, the special services simply razed to the ground with a tank. However, even then the terrorist attacks did not stop and even became more frequent, and the other day a genetic examination showed that it was not Muslim who died then, but his brother. Another militant jamaat, Sharia, took responsibility for the latest terrorist attacks. But, as detectives believe, it was the same Muslim who led him.
However, it is clear that Muslim alone could not carry out three terrorist attacks a day, so it is obvious that “immediately and forever” a quiet life will not come in Makhachkala. In addition, investigators from the prosecutor's office said yesterday that until there is a genetic examination, they will not fully believe in Muslim's death.