The organizer of the bombing of the Chechnya's House of Government in December 2002 died while being detained in Ingushetia, a republic in the North Caucasus bordering on Chechnya, Ingushetia's Interior Ministry reported. According to the Interior Ministry, Alikhan Saduyev, a terrorist, had been on the federal wanted list and known to law enforcement agencies as the organizer of the bombing of a building near the Ingushetia department of the Federal Security Service on September 15, 2003. Two of his accomplices died in the fight during Mr. Saduyev's arrest. Chechen Interior Ministry identification papers were found on all three militants.According to the ministry, law enforcement agencies conducted a special operation to arrest Mr. Saduyev in Ingushetia's Malgobek district yesterday. "While the suspect was being arrested in a car by Chechen Interior Ministry officers," the ministry said, "they rendered armed resistance and were killed in the return fire." The source said the militant was carrying Chechen Interior Ministry identification papers. "The police are investigating the involvement of the two other passengers in the car in various other crimes," the source said.
Mr. Saduyev was known as an active member of Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev's gang, the Ingush police reported. Yunus Shavlayev and Yunadi Vakhayev were the other two men in the car. Three Stechkin pistols, 200 bullets, a PSM pistol with no registration number, and six grenades were taken from the car. The bombing of the Chechen House of Government killed 71 people including 48 government staff members and 23 police officers and soldiers.