MOSCOW -- The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office is investigating the assassination of Daghestan's deputy mufti, or religious authority, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Police in Daghestan say Akhmed Tagayev, who also headed a public organization promoting morality, was shot dead on the street in Makhachkala by unknown assailants on his way home from work on May 25.
Tagayev had campaigned for restrictions on the sale of alcohol but was critical of Islamic extremists.
Assassinations of moderate Islamic officials is common in Daghestan, one of the most volatile republics in Russia's North Caucasus.
In the past few years, militants in Daghestan have killed two government ministers, the head of a TV company, and scores of officials, police, and government-affiliated clerics.