Translated material
“So that there is no trouble”
Troops sent to Ingushetia were concentrated near hospitals, schools and kindergartens
On Friday, the second phase of the special comprehensive preventive operation (SCO) began in Ingushetia, for which another 2.5 thousand military personnel from the North Caucasus District of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation were transferred to the republic in addition to the existing forces. However, so far this measure has not brought any significant results. Moreover, almost immediately the militants managed to carry out another daring attack on a local law enforcement officer. On Saturday night, an acting officer was shot at the gates of his own house in the village of Troitskaya. Chief of the Sunzhensky District Department of Internal Affairs, Major Isa Merzhoev. The officer was sent to the hospital in serious condition.The main reason for increasing the military force in Ingushetia was the events of the last two months - the massacre of the family of local teacher Lyudmila Terekhina, the terrorist attack at her funeral, shelling of the Russian military and the FSB building, the murder of an adviser to the president of the republic. According to specialists from the FSB Directorate of Ingushetia, since June, bandits have carried out more than 20 high-profile terrorist attacks against security forces and civilians.
The leadership of the Russian security forces first decided to respond to the increased activity of the separatists with police reinforcement, as well as a large-scale special operation that began on July 25 in Ingushetia, aimed at identifying militants and simply criminal elements .
However, neither the vehicle inspection nor the total passport control brought any results. Moreover, two days after the start of the special operation, the militants made their most daring attack. On July 27, unknown persons in the center of the new capital of Ingushetia, Magas, fired at the buildings of the FSB Directorate and the administration of the President of the Republic.
For half an hour, the militants fired at selected targets from grenade launchers and machine guns, and then disappeared without hindrance. The search for the attackers was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Magas is considered one of the most fortified and protected places in Ingushetia - there is a complex of government buildings there, including the presidential palace, the republican parliament, the treasury, as well as the headquarters of the Ingush security officers.
What exactly was the reason for the introduction of additional troops into the territory of Ingushetia has not yet been reported. Several military units are permanently based in the republic - the 503rd motorized rifle regiment of the Ministry of Defense, stationed in the Sunzha region, a border detachment in Nazran, a mobile detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Ingushetia, and units of the Federal Security Service. On August 10, another 2.5 thousand military personnel were transferred to Ingushetia, as well as several dozen units of armored vehicles and specially equipped Urals, which were deployed in the Sunzha and Malgobek regions of the republic.
According to official information from the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs, the special operation is preventive in nature. Representatives of law enforcement agencies said that there was no cause for concern and asked the population of the republic to understand with understanding some temporary inconveniences associated with the presence of additional troops. Inconveniences will primarily be associated with additional checks on the roads and restrictions on movement on the streets in the evening and at night. The operation to destroy the bandits, according to the head of the press service of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Colonel Vasily Panchenkov, will last no more than a month. Then, as expected, the internal troops will return to their places of permanent deployment.
Meanwhile, as Vremya Novostei learned, the appearance of 2.5 thousand military personnel in the Ingush regions may be associated with information received by the republican special services about possible terrorist attacks on the territory of the republic, similar to the events in Beslan in September 2004. Three years ago, a detachment of militants captured teachers, schoolchildren and their parents during a solemn assembly on September 1 in the small North Ossetian city of Beslan. 331 people died from among the hostages and the security forces who participated in the special operation to free them. As the Ingush FSB Directorate told Vremya Novostey, the main task of the military is to take hospitals, schools and kindergartens under total protection. “Everyone understands that the situation in the republic is now unstable, the main thing is to secure these vital institutions. So that there is no trouble,” a source in the special services commented on the events in Ingushetia.
In North Ossetia, neighboring Ingushetia, according to the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs, the local police have also been transferred to an enhanced version of their service, control over transport at the entrances to the republic has been tightened, and the density of traffic police officers on the roads has been increased. In addition, security measures have been strengthened in crowded places, bazaars, and markets. As the investigation showed, the members of the gang that seized the school in Beslan on September 1 came precisely from the territory of Ingushetia , where they gathered freely in the forest area near the villages of Sagopshi and Psedakh (Malgobek district) from August 26 to 31, 2004.