MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Leader of the so-called Tsumadinskaya gang has been neutralized in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said on Monday.
Magomed Abdulkhalikov, who offered armed resistance, was killed in a counter-terrorism operation on the outskirts of the village of Kvanada early on Monday, the committee said.
The gang leader born in 1986 is accused of carrying out numerous armed attacks on civilians and police and extorting huge amounts of money from entrepreneurs, it said.
A search for Abdulkhalikov’s accomplices in currently ongoing. One of them was injured in the special operation.
No casualties among the civilians and police have been reported.
Russia’s law enforcement agencies continue fighting militants in Dagestan for over 15 years since the battle phase of the second war against Islamist separatists in the neighboring Chechnya came to an end in 2000.
Attacks on security officials and civilians occur from time to time in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.