Rallyers in Grozny seeking help in finding abducteesTimur Aliyev, North Caucasus – Since the morning of August 18, a rally has been taking place in the centre of Grozny where more than 100 people from the Makhkety and Tevzeni villages, Vedenski district, have gathered in front of the building of the Moscow-backed Chechen government.
The participants (mostly women) are asking Chechen officials for assistance in finding two of their fellow citizens who were kidnapped on August 13. Khasan Elbuzdukayev and Vakha Agayev, employees of the Nurenergo company, were taken during the night from the village of Khattuni.
According to their colleagues, both men worked as electricians in that village and decided to stay overnight in a friend’s house. “Early in the morning unknown assailants in military uniforms entered the house and abducted them,” said Khasan`s cousin, Magomed Elbuzdukayev.
On August 17, the local TV station announced that Chechen fighters kidnapped the two men. “This was the last straw and we, their relatives and neighbors, decided to hold a protest rally,” said Magomed. The relatives are convinced Russian paratroopers based in the vicinity of Khattuni carried out the abduction.
Rudnik Dudayev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Chechen Republic, talked to all the participants, assuring them that the authorities would take all necessary measures to find the men. He asked that they end the rally, but the people refused. “We will not leave this place without being informed about their whereabouts,” insisted one of the villagers.
(H/E,A,T) |
