At least a dozen young Muslim men were detained by authorities in a southern Russian region near the restive Chechnya Tuesday, after police found a bag wired with explosives in a city park, a rights activist said. The roundup in Kabardino-Balkariya comes amid contract murders and other violence that is occurring with increasing frequency. Some is linked to rivalries between criminal clans and some is believed to be spilling over from Chechnya to the east, The Associated Press reported.
Law enforcement officials said five people had been detained in the sweep, but Valery Khatazhukov, chief of the Human Rights Center in the regional capital Nalchik, told The Associated Press that more then 20 families had reported that their relatives were arrested. Four families told AP their relatives had been detained, but they refused to give their names or give any other information, fearing retribution by authorities.
Regional Interior Minister Khachim Shogenov said a travel bag with wires protruding from it and containing about 10 kilograms of explosives was found in a park near the city police station Tuesday. âWithout question, the bomb was intended for a terrorist act against police officers and residents of the nearby buildings,â Shogenov said. Among those arrested were two men who were held for four years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Rasul Khudayev, who was turned over to Russian authorities in February 2004 and ordered released four months later, said he was beaten when he was taken into custody, and then held for five hours. Khudayev said police did not question him and refused to explain why he had been detained.
Authorities say Islamic extremists are responsible for a growing number of attacks on law enforcement officials. Last month, four police officers were shot and killed by unknown attackers in two separate incidents. In December, unidentified attackers raided a branch of the Federal Drug Control Service in Nalchik, killing the four employees and seizing dozens of guns and ammunition cartridges. Authorities have blamed Islamic militants for the attack. |