Local sources have reported that at least 3 civilians were killed and 5 others abducted by Russian soldiers in Ingushetia.

According to the information, at the end of January, members of the Russian FSB abducted a 22 year old man who had just returned from Belgium. The hostage’s name is Bagauddin Bogatyrev. His relatives said that he was a resident of Nazran. He and his friend were stopped by masked Russian soldiers while driving to Nazran. Bogatyrev was thrown into their car and driven away.

On February 12, Russian soldiers from the FSB conducted a punishment operation in the village of Galashki, within the Sunzha district of Ingushetia. Russian soldiers killed a civilian named Magomed Gaytukiyev, born in 1975. After the assassination, the Russian FSB abducted four male civilians. There is no detailed information about the abduction, but it was learned that the hostages were two old men, Kostoyev and Buzurtanov; a young man, Mukhaddin Yevloyev; and another man whose name is still unknown.

On the other hand, Russian sources claim that an Ingush man opened a fire first and FSB agents had to respond. Eyewitnesses refuse this claim and say that the FSB murdered him. It was also reported that the victim had been abducted earlier in December 2011 on the pretext that he was suspected of aiding the Ingush mujahedeen.

On February 13, at about 6.00am, a group of soldiers from the Russian FSB and local Ingush police surrounded the house of a board member of the public organization “Mekhk-Kel” (People’s Parliament) and former Deputy Minister of Construction, Sultan-Girey Khashagulgov, born in 1961, on Khautiyeva Street in the city of Nazran. They then started to search his house and murdered him. The Russian side claims that he opened fire first to resist arrest. After the incident, access to scene was blocked and Russian soldiers started to remove all furniture and property of the victim.

The public organization “Mekhk-Kel” published a press release and condemned the assassination. They described the FSB’s statement on the incident as shameless and brazen.

Recall that only five days ago, the Russian security service had searched the houses of his father and brother. His brother, Yakub had been arrested during this search as a suspect of the terrorist attack in Vladikavkaz in 2010. The Russian FSB had also tried to eliminate Sultan-Girey earlier. In March 2011, when a bomb exploded near his house, he was injured seriously but managed to survive. On October 29, 2012 he had been arrested during a hunger strike to demand Yunusbek Yevkurov’s resignation, together with other protesters.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco