He said that "also detained are his (Maskhadov's) accomplices Iliskhanov and Murdashev and his nephew Veskhan, who together with Maskhadov were hiding in an underground bunker under one of the houses in Tolstoy-Yurt."
"Maskhadov was identified by local residents, and also members of federal forces. An operational-investigative group of the prosecutor's office of Chechnya has left for the scene to carry out the required investigative measures," Shabalkin said.
As he noted, Aslan Maskhadov was destroyed when the bunker he was hiding in was blown up.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had on that day a meeting with FSB director Nikolai Patrushev, who reported to the Russian head of state that bandit groups leader Aslan Maskhadov was liquidated in Chechnya.
Patrushev also informed Putin that the preliminary identification had already been carried out, and it confirmed the identity of Maskhadov.
A source in the North Caucasus department of the Prosecutor-General's Office of Russia, told RIA Novosti over the telephone that Maskhadov's body would not be handed over to his relatives.
"According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, bodies of terrorists under Article 205 (terrorism) are not issued to relatives," the agency's source explained.
He said that under the law terrorists' bodies are buried on the territory of the constituent member of the Russian Federation where this terrorist was destroyed, but, he added, the place of the burial is known only to a limited circle of people from law enforcement bodies.
The source recalled that the last time Maskhadov was put on an international search list was in connection with the Beslan terrorist act. So he comes within the operation of this law.
Taus Dzhabrailov, head of the State Council of Chechnya, commenting on reports of Maskhadov's death said that his destruction "had knocked the ideological footing from under the militants' feet."
"Practically those people who cited Maskhadov's legitimacy and demanded negotiations and received his emissaries are now left with no base or foundation," Dzhabrailov said.
He said that following Maskhadov's destruction "there now remain only Basayev and a handful of mercenaries who must answer for atrocities committed against the Chechen people."
