Translated material
Dead cause
The owner of the car that exploded a month ago in Pyatigorsk was found killed
In the Stavropol Territory, the body of the main defendant in the case of the terrorist attack in Pyatigorsk , which occurred exactly a month ago, was discovered. Then, in the very center of the city, near a cafe, a Zhiguli car of the sixth model exploded, as a result of which 30 people were injured. For the entire month, investigators searched for the owner of the car, Korean-born Alexander Kim, who disappeared on the eve of the terrorist attack. The other day, his body with a bullet through the head was found in one of the regions of the region. According to investigators, Mr. Kim was killed just when it became known that he was missing. Meanwhile, yesterday the number of victims of another terrorist attack that occurred in the central market of Vladikavkaz on September 9 increased: another woman died in the hospital, and thus 18 people are considered dead as a result of the explosion.Yesterday in Nalchik, heads of law enforcement agencies of the North Caucasus Federal District gathered at a coordination meeting, who stated that terrorist activity in the region has sharply increased. As stated by Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Ivan Sydoruk, since the beginning of the year, four times more terrorist attacks have been committed in the North Caucasus Federal District than during the entire last year. He also noted that many terrorist attacks could have been prevented if not for the negligence of the police.
The terrorist attack in Pyatigorsk, we recall, took place on August 17 in the very center of the city: at approximately 16.10, a powerful explosion occurred near the Cape Town cafe on Kirova Street. Explosives with a capacity of up to 30 kg of TNT were planted in a VAZ-2106 car parked next to the cafe. As a result of the explosion, several cars and neighboring buildings were damaged. Then, only by chance, no one died, but 30 people were injured.
The owner of the exploded car was identified fairly quickly. He turned out to be 42-year-old Korean Alexander Kim, born in Chechnya. However, it was not immediately possible to find him, and he was put on the wanted list. Moreover, the investigation made a reservation that it does not consider him a suspect in the terrorist attack, but is counting on him as an important witness.
But even then, investigators said that Kim was unlikely to be found alive. A version was put forward that the militants who carried out the explosion in Pyatigorsk could have stolen his car and killed him. At the same time, the mother of the wanted man, Irina Kim, a resident of the Stavropol city of Georgievsk, contacted the police and reported him missing. According to her, he stopped answering calls the day before the explosion, but at that moment this did not alert any of the relatives, since Alexander was a private driver and often took tourists to Kavminvody at night. The woman expressed confidence that her son could not have been involved in the terrorist attack. The car, according to Irina Kim, was given to him by general power of attorney from an acquaintance, local police officer Sergei Konovalov.
And indeed, as investigators expected, they could not find him alive. Last Wednesday, the regional law enforcement agencies unofficially announced that the body of Alexander Kim with a gunshot wound to the head was found in the Predgorny district of the Stavropol Territory. “The corpse is skeletal, perhaps it was gnawed by dogs, so it’s too early to say who it is. Kim’s relatives identified him by his clothes, but it is still necessary to carry out appropriate examinations to establish his identity,” the source clarified. No one has officially confirmed this information yet - the Predgorny District Department of Internal Affairs reported that they know nothing about this at all, and the Main Directorate of the UPC said that they are refraining from commenting for now.
Meanwhile, new details have emerged of the terrorist attack that took place in the central market of Vladikavkaz on the morning of September 9. Then, near the entrance to the market, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Volga, as a result of which 14 people died on the spot and more than a hundred were injured. Later, three more people died in the hospital, and yesterday at the Moscow Institute of Surgery. Another woman died in Vishnevsky - 44-year-old Zeinab Tuaeva. The number of victims is still growing, people are gradually recovering from shock and turning to doctors for help. If immediately after the terrorist attack it was announced that a little more than 120 people were injured, then today 202 are considered injured.
Ingush militants took responsibility for this terrorist attack. The relevant information appeared on Wednesday evening on one of the separatist Internet sites. A message from a certain “amir of Ingushetia” states that the explosion in Vladikavkaz is a continuation of “jihad against Ossetian infidels in the occupied Ingush territories.” The author of the statement emphasized that the goal of the Ingush militants is “to expel the occupiers, return the lands of the Caucasus and establish Islamic rule on them.” However, the investigation regarded the terrorists’ statement as a provocation and an “attempt at PR” on their part.
At yesterday's meeting, Mr. Sydoruk cited data according to which, since the beginning of this year, 246 crimes of a terrorist nature and 37 sabotage and terrorist acts have been committed in the North Caucasus Federal District. “This is 76% of the total in the Russian Federation,” said a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to him, since the beginning of the year, 149 law enforcement officers and military personnel have been killed in the district and another 384 were injured. This is significantly more than in the previous year, he noted.
At the same time, as Mr. Sydoruk reported, in the North Caucasus Federal District since the beginning of the year, 298 militants and their accomplices have been detained and 167 militants have been killed. Yesterday, this number increased to 172: after a speech by a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office, another special operation took place in Dagestan. Security forces discovered a detachment of militants in the forest between the village of Gereykhanovo, Suleyman-Stal district, and the village of Tselyagyun, Magaramkent district. As a result of the ensuing shootout, five bandits were killed.