Dagestan Leader Blames International Terrorists for Deadly Attack

MOSCOW – The leader of the predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan Russia where gunmen last month launched deadly attacks in two towns, Sergei Melikov said the security threat came from “international terrorist organizations.”

Russian state media quoted Sergei Melikov as saying 22 people were killed in the June 23 attacks, which targeted churches and synagogues.

Western security experts said the attack was further evidence that Russia, preoccupied with the war in Ukraine, was facing a growing problem with Islamist militant violence at home. But Melikov insisted the threat came from outside.

“The main threat factor affecting the situation in the republic is the increasing activity of international terrorist organizations,” state news agency RIA quoted him as saying.

“And no matter how they try to convince us that the events in Dagestan are happening internally, I will never believe this.”

He said there was direct and indirect evidence pointing to the role of “our direct enemies” in the attack, but did not elaborate on who they were or what the evidence was.

Also Read: Israeli Historian Calls for Nuclear Strike on Iran

“And in this case, Western or other instructors do not need to be on the territory of Dagestan, because today the special services and leaders of terrorist organizations use the Internet, social networks, and may well influence the training and ideological state of people who are capable of committing such crimes,” he added.

The attack in Dagestan came three months after gunmen stormed a concert hall near Moscow, firing automatic weapons and setting it ablaze, killing 145 people in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Russia, without providing evidence, has blamed Ukraine for the attack. Ukraine has dismissed the accusations as absurd.

RIA quoted a senior Dagestani cleric as saying in a meeting with Melikov that a religious decree, or fatwa, would soon be issued banning the wearing of niqabs. Reports after the June 23 attack said one of the gunmen planned to escape wearing a niqab.

The cleric, Akhmed Abdulayev, said the niqab would be banned until peace and tranquility were restored in the region, and men who did not want their wives’ faces to be seen in public should keep them at home.

(ahm)