MOSCOW, October 24 (RIA Novosti) – An investigator was fatally wounded when his car was bombed on Thursday morning in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
According to investigators, the 36-year-old officer, who worked for the Investigative Committee in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, was sitting in his Hyundai Sonata when an explosive device fixed underneath the car detonated around 8:30 a.m. He succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.
Investigators said a criminal case has been opened into the attack, which they believe was motivated by the officer’s investigative work.
More than a decade after the formal end of the federal military campaign against separatists in neighboring Chechnya, Russian security forces continue to fight militants in Dagestan and other regions of the North Caucasus. Such militants stage frequent attacks on security forces, police and civilians, driven 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.
