Man in niqab opens fire at policemen in Dagestan

Ali Demilkhanov, a native of Chechnya, wounded two policemen on the road from Khasavyurt to Tlokh. The suspect is put on the wanted list. The man wears women’s clothing and a niqab as camouflage.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan has put on the wanted list the 41-year-old native of the village of Novaya Zhizn (New Life) in the Shali District of Chechnya, the Dagestani MIA reports in its Telegram channel. According to the Dagestani MIA’s information, while the police tried to stop a car to check the documents, the suspect opened fire from a firearm at the policemen. As a result, two policemen were hospitalized with wounds.

The photograph of Ali Demilkhanov, which was posted by the Dagestani MIA, matches the photograph of Ali Demilkhanov, who was reported by the law enforcement bodies as killed in 2016, the Dagestani weekly newspaper “Chernovik (Rough Draft) reports.

In 2018, it became known that the last grouping of militants operating in Dagestan killed two policemen in the Kizilyurt District. A source then reported that five members of the militant grouping were natives of the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, and the sixth member, Ali Demilkhanov, was called by the source a native of the Kurchaloi District of Chechnya.

On October 9, 2016, eight suspected militants were killed and four policemen were wounded in a shootout on a road in the Gudermes District of Chechnya. One of the eight killed suspects was identified as 33-year-old militant leader Ali Demilkhanov, a source in the Chechen police reported.

In 2012, it was announced that Ali Demilkhanov was one of two suicide bombers who blew themselves up near military personnel in Grozny on August 6. As a result, two officers were killed and three others were wounded.

In August 2015, the police tried to detain Ali Demilkhanov in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt, but he managed to escape, wounding two MIA’s inspectors.

According to the law enforcement bodies’ information, in 2008, Ali Demilkhanov was sentenced for participating in an illegal armed formation (IAF), but after being released a year later, he again joined the ranks of the militants and was put on the wanted list.