 The bodies of eight rather than of 12 killed gunmen were found at the place of a battle against a gang, destroyed on Friday in the village of Tukuy-Mekteb, Stavropol Territory, Tass learnt on Sunday these latest data at the Stavropol territorial police department. It is supposed that another three or five bodies of gunmen can be found after clearing the debris of three burnt-down houses in Tukuy-Mektebe, wherefrom gunmen conducted heavy firing. Seven Stavropol police officers died while wiping out the gang in Tukuy-Mektebe, and another five were wounded. Police found a walkie-talkie, eight submachineguns, two machineguns, three grenade launchers, a flamethrower, a pistol and great quantities of ammunition at the battlefield.| Shutter guns being native to Bangladesh. |
The gunmen, destroyed in Tukuy-Mekteb, had been dispatched to carry out terror acts by a bigger gang, called “Shelkovskaya dzhamaat”. It is now in hiding in the Shelkovskaya district of Chechnya. This is confirmed by the investigation of this case which was instituted under articles of the Russian Criminal Code on the assassination of law enforcement officers, criminal acquisition, storing and use of firearms, Tass learnt on Saturday from press secretary of the Stavropol branch of the Federal Security Service Yevgenia Androsova. The village of Tukuy-Mekteb is situated among semi-desert Caspian steppes, in direct proximity to Chechnya and Dagestan. According to the Stavropol security branch, “the Shelkovsyaya dzhamaat” includes people from outlying villages, who secretly had gone to Chechnya in 1996-1999 and had been trained there at Wahhabite camps. They participated in the attack on Dagestan in 1999 as members of the so-called Nogai Battalion. |