Melikov meeting with locals as he visits the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where an Orthodox priest was killed during an attack, in Derbent, 24 June 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/TELEGRAM CHANNEL OF HEAD OF DAGESTAN REPUBLIC HANDOUT
All senior officials in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, where at least 21 people were killed in a series of terror attacks on Sunday, will undergo special checks, the republic’s head Sergey Melikov said on Tuesday, quoted by state-affiliated business daily RBC.
Melikov’s statement followed the arrest of local politician Magomed Omarov on Sunday evening amid reports that two of his sons and one of his nephews had been among the militants who attacked two Orthodox churches, synagogues and a traffic police post in the Dagestani cities of Derbent and Makhachkala.
A Makhachkala court remanded Omarov in custody for 10 days on Tuesday for “petty hooliganism”, state news agency TASS reported, but a law enforcement source told the agency that Omarov could be charged with “aiding and abetting terrorism” later on.
“How could [Omarov] head a district if he couldn’t give a good education to his children?” Melikov asked.
During a press conference on Monday, Melikov said that Omarov would face consequences for his sons’ actions. “There is a saying that a son is not responsible for his father, but no one said that a father is not responsible for his son. We are always responsible for those we bring up,” he told reporters.
A local branch of Islamic State may have been behind the Sunday terror attacks in Dagestan, the US-based Institute for the Study of War wrote on Monday, a claim corroborated by an RBC law enforcement source who said that “going by their words, deeds and appearance, the terrorists belong to an Islamist terror organisation”.
