September 7, 2001

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11-year-old Minkail Gekhaev, a resident of the village of Kurchaloy, died on the train on the way home from Moscow. A month before his death, during the next artillery strike on the settlement, the boy experienced severe stress; he had to be taken for treatment to one of the capital's clinics. There he was treated, but they said that it was no longer possible to live in an environment of constant shelling.

My father wanted to leave Minkail Gekhaev with relatives in Astrakhan. However, the roar and signal of an oncoming train completed what the shell explosions had done.

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During the “cleansing” in the village of Kurchali, the Russian military detained two people: Kharon Bisultanov, 36, and Shamil Soltaev, 35.

Shamil Soltaev, who had been captured earlier, had already been beaten up when Kharon Bisultanov was lifted into the back of the Ural car. Together with him, Nina Ivanovna, the wife of the head of the administration of the village, Bagaudina Abdusalamov, also went up there. According to local residents, thanks to her requests, the military released the detainees.

From the book "People Live Here", Usam Baisaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006