Press Release
The Next Murder in Dagestan Provoked a Mass Protest

On 6 October, the press service of the MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) of Russia in Dagestan Republic released the information that in the DIA building of Nogaysk region of Dagestan, "a detained on suspicion of the murder man attacked a police officer and wounded him in the shoulder and a chest". The police officer, according to the sources in the MIA, used the weapon in the framework of self-defense, as a result of which the attacker - 21-year-old Eradil' Asanov was killed.

In the following days, hundreds of residents of Nogaysk region of Dagestan came out to protest in Terekli-Mekteb village, claiming to arrest Eradil' Asanov's murderer.

On 8 October the site "Caucasian Uzel" broadcast in Twitter a next meeting during which it was reported that an operating officer of Nogaysk RDIA Islambek Yanpolov, who detained the killed Asanov, appeared before the protesters. The police officer said that when conveying the killed to the department, he looked him through and found no weapons including a knife with which Asanov allegedly attacked MIA officer who killed him. According to one of the protesters' words, Rustam Adil'gereev, the chief of the police department, his deputy and the representative of prosecutor's office appeared before the protesters. "On our questions about why they have not yet started a criminal case on the fact of the murder, why they have not arrested the gunman, they could not answer".

"Eradil' was shot in the head, the inlet is located on the right side of the nape. How can one make such a shot in self-defense? We tired of this arbitrariness by the authorities. There are 25 thousand people in the region, they are workers. We have no extremism, but this arbitrariness pushes people to "the woods"," said Rustam Adil'gereev.

And only on 10 October, after all these events, meetings and the protesters' intention to block the federal route, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in Dagestan Republic reported that they started a criminal case against the head of the department of the Criminal Office of MIA of Russia in Dagestan Republic the police lieutenant colonel on constituent element of offence falling under Paragraphs "a, b, c," Part 3 of Art. 286 of the Russian Criminal Code (abuse of power with violence, weapons and serious consequences). Thus, only the mass protests of residents of Dagestan and a threat of their continuation forced the authorities to respond to the new crime committed by the law-enforcement officers.

A so-called "struggle with terrorism" has reached the point that the security forces destroy with impunity those whom they only want to. There are no laws for the security forces and they have themselves been armed gangs long ago, and all the facts of concealing of their crimes say only that the security forces' lawlessness is regulated by the "anti-Islamic" policy of the authorities.

Murders, kidnappings, tortures, planting of arms or ammunition - it has become even not the methods of struggle of the security forces with Islam, and the way of life of hundreds, and perhaps thousands of criminals in uniform. That impunity of the security forces has led to the fact that for them human life is no longer of any value. Covering such criminals, the authorities only underscore the fact that the cause of all lawlessness on the Caucasus is their hatred towards Islam and its followers.

We express our sincere condolences to Eradil' Asanov's family and friends and say the words of Allah (swt):

(إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ)

"Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return." [2: 156]

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Russia