Screenshot: State-owned TV channel Grozny
The father of a Chechen teenager who was killed after allegedly attacking traffic police has been abducted in Moscow and taken to Chechnya, in Russia’s North Caucasus, where he was severely beaten, Chechen opposition Telegram channel NIYSO reported on Friday.
NIYSO said that the man was in an extremely serious condition, having suffered broken arms, legs and ribs, adding that other relatives of the teenager had been taken to Chechnya against their will. The dead teenager’s father and uncle are expected to have their property confiscated and be expelled from Chechnya, NIYSO continued.
On Wednesday morning, locals in the Chechen town of Achkhoy-Martan were summoned to the central square without explanation, where they were confronted with the dead body of a 17-year-old boy, since identified as Eskerkhan Kurmashev, whom government-controlled channel Grozny TV reported had been killed when he attacked traffic police in the town with a knife on Monday, leaving one officer dead and injuring a second.
Kurmashev’s body was left on display in the square, with video footage of the event showing a large crowd of people, some visibly distraught and crying.
News outlet Caucasian Knot, citing sources and local residents, said on Friday that the teenager’s motive for carrying out the attack was an earlier conflict between him and a policeman.
Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov has not commented on the public display of Kurmashev’s body either, only saying in a Telegram post on Monday, the day Kurmashev was killed, that the attacker had been acting on orders from people in Turkey and a citizen of Ukraine, and that nobody would be allowed “to use our children as a tool against our own people”.
