October 17, 2001
***
In the morning, in the village of Starye Atagi, a 25-year-old local resident, Mokhmad-Salah (Magomed-Salah) Iriskhanov, was killed. He was going to visit relatives who lived nearby, left his house and saw Russian military personnel on Lenin Street. As it turned out, they were robbing the house of his neighbors, the Umarovs, who were absent at the time.

It was too late to go back, and the military could take this for an attempt to escape. Mokhmad-Salah Iriskhanov tried to pass by, but he was stopped and, without asking any questions, they shot him point-blank with a machine gun.

Having committed the murder, the soldiers fled from the village with the stolen property. The young man was buried on the same day in the local cemetery.

***
Near the village of Berdakel, military personnel from a passing column fired at civilian vehicles. Two cars and a RAF minibus traveling from Khasavyurt to Grozny were damaged. Luckily, none of the passengers or drivers were injured.

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