Murder of nine hunters solved in Kabardino-Balkaria

Boris Salmaksov, head of the Chief Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Prosecutor's Office for the SFD, has reported today that in Kabardino-Balkaria the murder of nine hunters and huntsmen has been solved, the accused criminals have been announced into federal search.

"We know that the crime was committed by the bandit grouping, some members of which had been searched in connection with the attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005," the "Interfax-South" is quoting Mr Salmaksov.

One of independent experts of the KBR (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic), who preferred to remain anonymous, has expressed his assumptions on the tragedy: "It is quite possible that the crime was committed by Astemirov (searched for the attack on Nalchik in 2005, the leader of the Jama'at, for information about whom a prize of 3 million roubles was promised, - comment of the "Caucasian Knot") and his gang. Indeed, he knows quite well about the reward for his head, and there are surely persons willing to get it.

However, it is not clear why the militants took away the cellular telephones of their victims, which they cannot use, but did not take the foodstuffs, without which survival in the woods on the eve of winter is hardly possible. It is also strange that the militants made their dugout in such close affinity from the village, where everybody could come across them, for example, peasants who go for firewood to the forest or in search of their lost cattle, or just the hunters."