MOSCOW, October 25 (RIA Novosti) – A man in the southern Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria has been held on suspicion of aiding a terrorist gang accused of at least five murders, local police said Friday.
The man provided food, money and transportation to Alsan Zagashtokov’s gang from 2010 to 2012, police in the North Caucasus Federal District said.
The suspect, whose name has been withheld, was also wanted for large-scale theft, police said in a statement, without elaborating.
Zagashtokov, who was slain by law enforcement agents last year, was accused of leading an Islamist gang that killed three prison officials, a judge and a judicial officer in Kabardino-Balkaria, a small, predominantly Muslim republic.
Police said another wanted militant was killed in Kabardino-Balkaria late Thursday after he launched a grenade, injuring three officers.
Police said they were hunting for the man’s three accomplices.
The republics of Russia's North Caucasus remain plagued by violence generated by ethnic, religious and political rivalries, poverty and corruption, and a resilient Islamic insurgency.
