NAZRAN, Ingushetia -- Ingushetian officials say the suicide bomber who attacked a police checkpoint on December 17 was the brother-in-law of slain rights activist Maksharip Aushev, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Twenty people were severely injured in the explosion outside the Ingushetian city of Nazran outside the capital, Magas, that police said was caused by a car driven by Batyr Dzhaniyev, the brother of Aushev's widow, Fatima Dzhaniyeva.
Officials said Dzhaniyev was likely seeking revenge against the police for an
explosion on December 16 that killed his mother and a brother and severely injured Dzhaniyeva and another brother.
The car carrying Dzhaniyeva, 27, and her family had stopped at the same checkpoint when they were asked by police to get out of their car so it could be searched.
They were then allowed to drive on, but the car exploded just minutes after leaving the checkpoint.
Dzhaniyeva, who is pregnant, has been hospitalized in serious condition along with her brother.
Dzhaniyeva's husband, Aushev, was an Ingush human rights activist and businessman who was shot dead in his car on October 25 as he was driving in the nearby republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.
His relatives and colleagues have said he was killed because of his professional activities.