Attack by members of the Chechen resistance on a convoy of Russian forces near Chiri-Yurt, shelling of a village and detention of teenagers

October 15, 2001

***
At about 2 p.m., near the village of Chiri-Yurt, the VF of the ChRI attacked a convoy of federal forces, which included police officers and the district military commandant's office. On one section of the road, four landmines planted near the roadway exploded simultaneously. The column was forced to stop. Immediately the militants opened fire on the trucks and on the servicemen who were on the armor of the armored personnel carrier accompanying them; one policeman was killed, another was seriously wounded. According to other sources, six people died.

After some time, the military began shelling Chiri-Yurt with heavy guns. As a result of a direct hit from an artillery shell, a cottage burned down and three apartments were damaged. Two people were wounded, among them a resident of Grozny, Vakha Khusainovich Abdulaev, born in 1966, who lived in the village as a refugee.
The military detained Umar Balautdinovich Dugushev, born in 1987. After seeing his cousin off, he returned to his home. They also took away his 13-year-old sister Anisa. That same evening, with the assistance of the head of the local administration, the girl was released.

On October 16, another teenager was taken from the village - Magomed Musaevich Betiev, born in 1987. The military arrived at the house where he lived in an armored personnel carrier and a Ural vehicle. The equipment was missing both side numbers and registration marks. The detainee was taken to the local commandant's office (POM), where Umar Dugushev was already being held. A few hours after Betiev’s arrest, both were transferred to the Shali VOVD. The teenagers were locked in different cells and taken separately for interrogation. They demanded that I hand over my weapons and beat me. They asked questions about the participants of the WF of ChRI and the village residents.

On the sixth day after Magomed Betiev’s arrest, he was released from the VOVD. On the ninth day, Umar Dugushev also returned home. This happened despite the fact that RIA Novosti had already reported as a fact established by law enforcement officials about “the involvement of a previously detained 15-year-old resident of the village of Chiri-Yurt in the preparation and conduct of a terrorist act committed on October 15.” The news agency's message was distributed on October 22. By this time, one of the teenagers was already free. Negotiations were in full swing between relatives and the village administration, on the one hand, and Russian police officers, on the other, about releasing the second one.

***
In mid-October, in the village of Gikalovsky, the military burned about 12 thousand bales of straw. Employees of the Teplichny state farm prepared them for laying greenhouses during the cold season. Before burning the straw, the military sent the guards away, threatening that the consequences of delay would be bad for them. When asked why they were doing this, they answered: “So that militants cannot hide in the straw.”


From the book “People Live Here”, Usam Baysaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006.

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