MOSCOW, June 6 (Itar-Tass) - Agents of the Federal Security Service /FSB/ routed the gang which had been planning a series of acts of terror in Moscow at orders by the terrorist organization Islamic Party of Turkestan, the information center of the National Antiterrorist Committee /NAK/ told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
"In May, the FSB intercepted the activity of a dangerous gang which had been planning to carry out high-profile acts of terror during Victory Day celebrations in Moscow. The members of this gang who had committed several crimes in the Volga district and had been hiding from police, left for the Afghan-Pakistan zone in 2010 where they had military and ideological training at an international terrorist organization, studied mining and demolition techniques and took part in attacks against NATO coalition forces," the NAK underlined.
"After staying abroad for three years, the militants, at the orders by leaders of the terrorist organization "Islamic Party of Turkestan" secretly returned to Russia with the view of carrying out terrorist attacks," it added.
The militants rented an apartment in Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Moscow region, where they were planning their crimes.
"The timely and coordinated actions by the FSB foiled these plans: two gangsters were destroyed, and one, an Amerkhanov, was wounded and detained. After a brief shootout in the apartment, the FSB found numerous components of homemade explosives which left no doubts that the gangsters were planning a series of acts of terror. "Among the found items were blanks for so-called bomb belts, special devices for setting off explosives and destructive agents in the form of metal expansion bolt shields.
"As a result of the successful operation, the FSB found out the gangsters' contacts among Uzbek citizens, and active functionaries of the terrorist organization "Islamic Party of Turkestan" who had coordinated criminals' actions. Amerkhanov, when questioned, said the group had been ordered by leaders of this organization to carry out a series of terrorist attacks in Moscow and escape to Afghanistan," the NAK said.
He also said that the mastermind behind the planned terrorist attacks was Yulai Davletbayev, b.1970, who was not in the apartment in Orekhovo-Zuyevo when the FSB launched the operation.
Davletbayev was detained on Thursday.
He had been working as a taxi driver and took advantage of his job so as to spot the most vulnerable sites in Moscow where the number of potential victims might be particularly high, a source from the informational centre of the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK) told Itar-Tass.
Davletbayev, who always made thorough preparations for subversive acts, found a job in Moscow which offered him an opportunity to freely move about the city without arising law enforcers' suspicion. Driving in the city in a taxi, he was on the lookout for places which might prove the most vulnerable during a terrorist attack with the worst consequences and the highest number of casualties, the source said.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) established that Davletbayev was connected with an organizer of a blast of the Urengoi-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline, terrorist Shaimukhametov, who was neutralized in 2010. Shaimukhametov was also responsible for an attack on a traffic police post in the Perm region and murder of a policeman, FSB said.
FSB took urgent measures to organize the search for Davletbayev, involved considerable forces and facilities of other departments which took part in the search, contacted bodies of state power and local governments. On several territories operations of a filtration and regime character were conducted. All these measures helped find out the exact place where the bandit was hiding, NAK said