MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) – Unknown assailants gunned down a local tax official Wednesday in Russia’s violence-plagued North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, police said.
Saidakhmat Satayev, head of municipal tax collection in Khasavyurt, a city in western Dagestan close to the neighboring republic of Chechnya, died from injuries he sustained when his car was shot up at about 8 a.m., according to local police, who also identified him as the deputy head of the local administration.
Attacks on security forces, police and civilians occur regularly in the North Caucasus, and are generated by ethnic, religious and political rivalries, as well as poverty and corruption. The violence is also fed by an Islamist insurgency, which has been especially resilient in Dagestan.
Russian anti-terrorism officials said Tuesday that they had discovered and defused a large bomb, equivalent to 12 kg of TNT, in a shopping complex in Khasavyurt. Last week, a police officer and a suspected militant were killed during a shootout in the city, and another officer was injured, police said.
