Dagestani resident accused of links with extremist grouping

The inquiry into the case of a 38-year-old resident of the Khasavyurt District, accused of membership in a unit of the "At-Takfir Wal-Hijra", a religious extremist organization banned in Russia, is over, investigators have informed.

According to investigators, in 2017, in Makhachkala, the above resident of the Khasavyurt District joined a unit of the above extremist organization. "At their meetings, he and other members of the extremist organization called for the rejection of secular laws and civil society institutions, and sought to create a state with a radical form of religious rule," the Investigating Department (ID) for Dagestan of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 23, the FSB (Russian Federal Security Bureau) announced the arrest in Dagestan of six members of a unit of the "At-Takfir Wal-Hijra".

Earlier, Alexander Skakov, an Orientalist, noted that the "At-Takfir Wal-Hijra" could have experienced a rebirth. According to his version, the youth supported the ideas of the grouping; it is possible that its members have close ties with the "Islamic State" (IS), another terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court.

Since 2010, when the grouping was recognized as extremist and banned in Russia, not only in the Caucasus, but throughout Russia, its members have been repeatedly detained, said Joanna Paraschuk, a British journalist and the creator of the "Chechens in Syria" Project.