The father of an IS militant, whom Kadyrov spoke about after the murder of two security forces in Shali, has disappeared in Chechnya

Relatives and friends of Chechen resident Movsar Rashidov, whose son Magomed Rashidov is fighting on the side of the Islamic State, have not known about his whereabouts since January 11. They told Kavkaz.Realii about this after the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, mentioned Rashidov on his Instagram.

Movsar Rashidov worked as a teacher at the Faculty of Geography at the Chechen State University in Grozny, and then got a job at the Republican Ecological and Biological Center, where schoolchildren receive additional education. In 2014, his son left for Tbilisi, and from there to Syria. Rashidov Sr. found him at the recruit training base, however, despite persuasion, he refused to return. Since then, Magomed Rashidov has not been in touch with his father, the publication writes.

According to Kavkaz.Realii interlocutors, Rashidov Sr. was detained on January 11 by “an unknown security agency.” Since then, nothing has been known about his whereabouts. The geographer’s family suspects that “he is in the hands of services controlled personally by Ramzan Kadyrov, and pressure is being put on him to return his son Magomed, who is in Syria, to Chechnya.”

As Kadyrov reported on the website of the head of the republic, on January 30, in the Chechen city of Shali, police tried to stop a “suspicious car” approaching the checkpoint. In response to a request to present documents, the people in the car threw a grenade. Two policemen died from their injuries. Three suspected militants were subsequently killed.

Kadyrov claimed that the dead were allegedly led by a native of Shali, Magomed Rashidov, who had been fighting for the Islamic State for three years, “recruits young people on the Internet, fools them, and gives orders to kill officials and representatives of the clergy.” The next day, the head of the republic wrote about Rashidov on Instagram. “Rashidov’s father publicly cursed his son and stated that the best reward for him would be the news of his son’s death. “I repeat once again that parents, relatives and friends are obliged to bear responsibility for the criminal actions of bandits or hand them over to the police,” he said.