MOSCOW, May 27 (Itar-Tass) - The situation in Dagestan, where the gangs of gunmen are more active than in any other North Caucasus republic, keeps deteriorating. Last Saturday, a female suicide bomber blasted herself at the Dagestani Interior Ministry building in Makhachkala. A policeman was killed in the bomb blast, a woman died in the hospital later, another 15 people were injured. This is already the second terrorist act, which was committed in the city in the previous week. On May 20, the double terrorist act, which was staged at the Federal Bailiff Service, claimed the lives of four law enforcers, more than 30 people were wounded.
The gunmen are winning a propagandistic war, the experts noted. Thanks to the well-established propaganda a fresh reinforcement is coming to the terrorists almost constantly. Meanwhile, the women, who are secondary people for the gunmen, are particularly actively used for the suicide bomb attacks.
Members of illegal armed units in Dagestan systematically kill servicemen, officers of the Federal Security Service and policemen. The explosions are set off one after another sometimes. The tortures, abductions of people turned in the daily reality long ago. The Islamic militants already do not represent separate gangs, which commit terrorist raids in the woody highlands. The gangs in ‘the forest’ (the usual place for the gangs rampaging in the North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan - Itar-Tass) in Dagestan have moved to the city long ago.
The Russian Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that 295 terrorism-related crimes were reported in the republic in the previous year. This figure is higher than similar indicators in 2011. The activities of the gunmen are not on the decline this year as well. According to the media reports, members of the illegal armed units have already committed over 100 crimes this year. No less than 180 people, more than a half of them were killed, became victims of the armed conflict. One in five victims is a civilian.
The suicide bomb attack at the republican Interior Ministry building made acting republican President Ramazan Abdulatipov come back urgently from Moscow to Makhachkala. “The terrorist acts carried out in Makhachkala particularly resulted from unlawfulness, corruption inside the local authorities that have been worsening for a long period of time,” Abdulatipov stated. “Purge your villages, districts and towns from evil, save your children, your future,” he told the residents of the republic.
Meanwhile, Abdulatipov believes that the bandit gangs in the republic have no future, the bandit forces are agonizing, being at their last gasp. “There is nothing new in the terrorist acts, which these beasts carried out in Makhachkala. This is the continuation of the Medieval times and fanaticism. I believe that the bandit gangs can be defeated, for this purpose we should continue the work to renovate and purify Dagestan,” the Dagestani president said in conclusion.
“Abdulatipov’s desire to defeat the bandits evokes respect. And certainly his statements to this effect provoke some retaliatory actions from the illegal armed units. But the activities of the gunmen can hardly be directly linked with the work of the Dagestani head,” the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily quoted political expert Vladimir Popov as saying.
In his view, the fact that the gunmen are active is primarily a flaw in the work of the federal authorities, the unwillingness of the government to look closely in social and economic problems of the republic, which encourage the outflow of young people in the forest. “The law enforcement agencies also fail to do their work properly,” the expert believes.
Confirming his conclusion he quoted Abdulatipov as saying, “I am confident even not as a specialist in this sphere that there is no clear-cut operative, covert intelligence and reconnaissance work, there are very many accidental people, who were recruited by pulling strings in the Dagestani law enforcement agencies.”
Member of the Public Council at the Federal Security Service Reserve Lieutenant-General Andrei Przhezdomsky believes that the Dagestani authorities and the law enforcement agencies, which are waging the struggle against the gunmen, fail to work properly in information and propagandistic aspects. Meanwhile, in his view, the propagandistic campaign, which is being conducted by the gunmen, is very efficient. “Thanks to the well-established propaganda a fresh reinforcement is coming to the terrorists almost constantly,” the military expert believes.
Madina Aliyeva (Salakhanova), who in the view of the law enforcement agencies, was included in the so-called ‘risk group’ of possible suicide bombers, was identified as a suicide bomber, who staged the suicide bomb attack at the republican Interior Ministry building. She was married twice with members of the illegal armed units. One of her husbands, Ali Aliyev, was killed back in 2009. Another husband Kurban Dzhapayev was among four gunmen, who were killed in a special operation in Kaspiisk in July 2012.
It is not ruled out that Madina Aliyeva’s crime was an act of revenge for the death of her husband, the Novye Izvestia daily cited former deputy commander of the united armed group in the North Caucasus Boris Podoprigora. “The whole generation, which the suicide bomber belonged to, grew up and does not imagine another life, except for constant bloodshed,” he noted.
The biographies of many female suicide bombers, or as they are also named ‘the black widows’, are similar. For instance, suicide bomber Aminat Kurbanova, who is a Russian by nationality, but accepted Islam, got married with four gunmen, three of them were killed, and one more gunman was convicted, blasted spiritual leader of Dagestani Muslims Sheikh Said Afandi of Chirkey in August 2012.
First Vice-President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Konstantin Sivkov noted that the use of a woman as a suicide bomber is typical for the Caucasus gunmen, “She is a secondary person for them.”