Three police officers and two Justice Ministry officials were killed in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan last week in a series of attacks claimed by a Dagestani religious extremist group with links to Chechen rebels. The series of incidents began last Monday with the bombing of a cafe near the educational center of the Dagestani Interior Ministry in the republican capital Makhachkala. No one was hurt in the bombing that smashed windows in nearby buildings. Later that day, the warden of Dagestan's strict regime prison colony, Ferezula Abdulaev, and his guard were gunned down by two unidentified attackers near Abdulaev's apartment building in downtown Makhachkala. Abdulaev died on the spot, while his guard died several hours later in a hospital. A search operation by Dagestani police yielded no results at the time. On Thursday, the head of the operations headquarters of the Dagestani Interior Ministry, Colonel Gadzhiramazan Ramazanov, his subordinate lieutenant Nizami Bukarov, and Ramazanov's wife were gunned down as they drove in a police car in a Makhachkala suburb near Ramazanov's house. Three masked gunmen riddled the police car with bullets from Kalashnikov assault rifles, killing Ramazanov on the spot and then fleeing in a Lada sedan. His wife and Bukarov died of wounds on their way to hospital. Police failed to track the attackers. The following day, two police officers were wounded in a street shootout in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt near the border with Chechnya, as unidentified attackers opened fire at them and then fled. Several hours later, another police officer was shot and killed in Khasavyurt. Two unidentified attackers gunned him down in a local cafe and stole his pistol, police said.
An earlier unknown group of Dagestani religious extremists, called Sharia, claimed the cafe bombing and the murders of Abdulaev, Ramazanov, and Bukarov in a statement published yesterday on the Chechen rebels' website, Kavkazcenter.com. The group called Abdulaev "a diligent hangman of Muslims", and accused him of torturing Muslim inmates. The group has also claimed other murders of Dagestani policemen and security officers over the last two years, saying there actions were retaliation for abductions, torture, and extrajudicial prosecutions of Dagestani Muslims. Those interrogated have told police that attacks on law enforcers are conducted by an extended network of smaller groups of avengers, coordinated by Rasul Makasharipov, a lieutenant of Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev. Basaev has claimed responsibility for all major terrorist attacks in Russia over the last two years, including the hostage-taking raid on a school in Beslan in September. In the related news, Dagestani police yesterday found a hidden rebel base in Dagestan that could accommodate up to 30 gunmen near the border with Chechnya. Investigators retrieved a large cache of explosives from three dug-outs, which included four so-called "shahid belts", explosive-filled belts used by suicide bombers.