Police Conclude Investigations Into Nalchik Attacks

The attacks against police buildings in Nalchik on 13 October and the fighting that followed according to officials left some 130 people dead, including 95 militants.

The republic's prosecutor, Yurii Ketov yesterday said that among militants killed, police had identified 10 of the 13 suspects wanted for an attack last December on the Nalchik drugs control office, during which four police officers were killed and weapons stolen.

Police say those weapons were then used in the 13 October attacks.

In an open letter carried today by a Russian news agency, the families of militants killed in the raids said their relatives were provoked to take up arms by law-enforcement agencies' repressive tactics against Muslims. They also reiterated their demand for the release of their relatives' bodies.

The Nalchik-based Human Rights Center of Kabardino-Balkariya reiterated concern about what it said were increasing instances of illegal detentions and repression against young Muslims.

(Newsru.com/Regnum.ru)