Seven residents of Chechnya detained on suspicion of trying to join IS

In the Shelkovsky District of Chechnya, power agents detained seven local residents who were about to go to Syria to join the militants of the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, law enforcers have reported.

"On January 31, in the course of operative-and-search activities, held in the Shelkovsky District of the republic, a group of young people, who had planned to leave for Syria to join ISIL terrorists. In total, the group consisted of seven people; all of them lived in the same street, and knew each other very well. Shamil Umalatov, a local resident, was the organizer," said the spokesman of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

Detainees' relatives assert that the young people had no intention to join the ISIL.

"There was and there is no 'terrorist unit' here. They just discussed various issues related to the topic of religion and the situation in Syria; however, now they are almost regarded as terrorists," a relative of one of the detained young people told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

At the same time, locals do not deny that one of the detainees had really wanted to go to Syria.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.