MOSCOW, March 12 (Itar-Tass) — The identity of the second militant killed in a special operation in the capital of Dagestan has been established. “He was Magomedkhan Tagirov, born in 1992, member of the so-called Makhachkala gang,” the Information Centre of the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) told Itar-Tass.
Tagirov was a member of illegal armed groups since September 2011. “Together with the liquidated ringleader of the gang Zulfugarov he was involved in the murder of world Kun Fu champion, officer of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Guseinov. He is also involved in several other terrorism-related crimes,” the NAC reported.
Earlier, the National Antiterrorist Committee reported about the neutralisation during Monday’s operation of the leader of the Makhachkala bandit underground, Eldos Zulfugarov, who was the federal wanted list.
According to NAC, Zulfugarov was involved in several serious terrorism crimes, explosions, murders, attacks on security officials and law enforcement officers. “In particular, Zulfugarov is suspected of the murder in September 2011 of officer of Russia’s FSB department for Dagestan Magomedov and deputy chief of the Federal Penitentiary Service department for Dagestan Murtazaliyev, as well as his daughter, nephew and driver, and this January – of the murder of a famous athlete, Kung Fu world champion, FSB officer Guseinov,” the Committee said.
On January 28, he staged an explosion in Shamil Avenue in Makhachkala in which two children were wounded, one of them later died in hospital, the NAC added.
Both bandits were neutralised in the counterterrorism operation.
“At around 23:00 MSK on March 11, the ringleader of gunmen and a gang member were blocked in an apartment in a five-storey building located in Shosse Aeroporta Street,” the NAC specified. However, before the operation FSB officers received information that two women with children were in the apartment together with the bandits. In order to avoid needless casualties, negotiations were started with the militants, including with the participation of human rights activists, which lasted for a long time.
“The gunmen’s accomplice, the wife of the gang ringleader, refused to come out form the blocked apartment, and by 10:00 a.m. on March 12 security services took a woman with two children from the apartment. After that the active phase of the operation began, during which the bandits and their accomplice who offered armed resistance were neutralised,” a NAC representative said.
“There are no casualties among the civilian population, law enforcers sustained no losses,” the source told Itar-Tass.
Weapons and ammunition have been found in the apartment where the bandits were hiding. The investigators are currently working at the scene.