Grozny incident continues trend of knife attacks on law enforcers in regions of NCFD

An attack on the police in Grozny has become at least the seventh knife attack on the police in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria, that is, the regions of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), over three years. Most of attackers were declared natives of Chechnya and Ingushetia.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that according to the version released by the Chechen law enforcement bodies, on December 28, two natives of Ingushetia were killed in an attack on police inspectors in Grozny. Policeman Magomed Djabrailov was killed, and his colleague was wounded. Ramzan Kadyrov reported that the police inspectors were attacked with knives by two brothers who had moved to Chechnya from Ingushetia.

On December 31, 2019, at the entrance to Magas, two persons in a car hit an inspector of the road-and-patrol police service (known as DPS) and then attacked his colleagues with knives. According to the law enforcement bodies, the attackers were identified as Mikail Miziev and Akhmed Imagozhev, a master of sports in arm wrestling. Mikail Miziev was killed, while Akhmed Imagozhev was wounded. Policeman Zelimkhan Kokorkhoev was killed, and three of his colleagues were injured.

On September 30, 2019, in Karabulak, policemen wounded an 18-year-old local resident after he attacked inspectors of the patrol-and-post police service (known as PPS) with a knife.

On July 1, 2019, a policeman was killed in the Achkhoi-Martan District. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), an attacker stabbed the policeman with a knife, threw a grenade, and was killed by return fire. The killed suspect was identified as Zelimkhan Musaev, a native of the village of Achkhoi-Martan. The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the "Islamic State" (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, – note of the "Caucasian Knot"), but the Chechen law enforcement bodies declared Zelimkhan Musaev a drug addict married to a woman whose relatives were militants left for Syria. The law enforcers' version attracted the attention of Chechen residents, since earlier, the authorities of the republic had never used such an explanation.

Several days before the above incident, a similar attack on the police took place in Grozny not far from the residence of the Chechen leader. During the attack on June 23, two law enforcers were attacked and injured by Akhmed Barzaev. The attacker himself was killed, and the IS declared him its militant.

On January 24, 2019, DPS inspectors were attacked in Nalchik, and four suspects were killed during the attack on the police inspectors. One policeman was stabbed. Relatives of the killed suspects said they knew nothing of the reasons for the incident, and the IS claimed responsibility for the attack on the police inspectors.

In fact, the IS has not been involved in all those attacks, says Caucasian expert Akhmet Yarlykapov. According to him, knife attacks on the police have become a common tendency throughout the world, including in the Caucasus.