Arrests and Terrorist Activity in the North Caucasus

• Three individuals were arrested: natives of Karachaevsk, Islam Kochkarov, and Amina Dautova.
• The third prisoner is the widow of Nikolai Kipkeev, who died along with a female suicide bomber on August 31, 2004, during the explosion near the Rizhskaya metro station in Moscow.

Discovery of Terrorist Arsenal

• Fuad Shurdumov, head of the UBOP (Directorate for Combating Organized Crime) of the KBR (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic), reported that a terrorist arsenal was found in the garage rented by Islam Kochkarov.
• The arsenal included:
  • An AK-74 assault rifle with two full magazines.
  • A MON-90 mine.
  • Two kilograms of TNT.
  • 59 detonators.
  • Various components for explosive devices.
  • Detailed maps of Kabardino-Balkaria and the Stavropol Territory.

Siege in Nalchik

• Shortly after the arrest on Dobrolyubov Street, a siege followed on Shogentsukov Avenue in Nalchik.
• The siege lasted from midnight on February 19 until noon on February 20.
• During the night, information surfaced that the father of Aslan Temirbulatov had been brought from Karachay-Cherkessia to negotiate with the barricaded militants.
• It was concluded that the father was in the besieged apartment.

Aslan Temirbulatov

• Aslan Temirbulatov is known as the closest assistant to Achimez Gochiyayev.
• His duties included:
  • Recruiting suicide bombers to carry out terrorist acts.
  • Preparing terrorist attacks.
• Temirbulatov was identified after the failure of a terrorist attack in North Ossetia, when Nikolai Epryntsev, a student from Karachaevsk, was sent to blow up a market in Vladikavkaz.
• The standard price for the "service" was 200 dollars.

Conflicting Reports

• The text notes that there were not three, but two corpses. Identities can only be established after a special forensic examination.
• Documents found on the deceased may be forged.
• The data from the two high-ranking officials does not coincide.
• The inconsistency in information may be due to the reluctance to publicize the name of one person, about whom a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the KBR informed a "Novaya" correspondent long before the end of the special operation.
• According to this source, one of the "mujahideen" is a former officer of the Russian special services, an honor student in combat and political training.
• This indirectly refutes Ketov's information: if shooting was established before the end of the assault, the police led some people out and took them away in cars.
• Late in the evening, all residents were evacuated.
• At two o'clock in the morning, eyewitnesses reported hearing machine-gun fire again in the area of the house.
• At eight o'clock in the morning on February 21, residents were allowed to return to their apartments.
• Reports were sparse:
  • A joint operation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB was carried out.
  • An active Wahhabi was liquidated, but the name was not reported.
  • Information about the detention of other persons during the operation is neither confirmed nor denied.

Religious and Militant Groups

• In the fall of 1996, the Ministry of Justice of the KChR (Karachay-Cherkess Republic) registered "Muslim Society No. 3," which subsequently became known as the "Karachay [Jamaat]" thanks to the press.
• [Society No. 3] did not cease to exist after the leader went underground.
• Achimez Gochiyayev left lieutenants in Karachay-Cherkessia.
• These lieutenants are actively recruiting young people for Chechen militant detachments.
• Recruits allegedly undergo training on the high-mountain Biychesyn plateau.
• Law enforcement agencies of the KBR report that the Karachay extremists in Nalchik had accomplices.
• To check all suspects in the republic, mass detentions and interrogations of suspicious persons from among the Muslim youth are being carried out.

Fatima TLISOVA,
our special correspondent
Karachaevsk — Nalchik