Aslambek Aslakhanov, advisor to federal President Vladimir Putin, is not sure about the number, ethnicity and nationality of the terrorists. They cling to previous demands-to stop Chechen warfare and release captured militants who were taking part in a violent attack on Ingush police premises, June 21, he said to the media.
Mr. Aslakhanov discerns one and the same Arab terrorist organisation behind the latest terror acts in Russia-last night's Moscow blast and today's tragedy in Beslan. "All countries on the anti-terror coalition are to join hands, and act tough on that organisation all together," he said.
The presidential advisor will fly to North Ossetia quite soon.
When asked whether there was a chance for the school terrorists to release the seized children, he replied: "That's what I am praying the Almighty about! The beasts are down on kids now! Is there anything human left in them?"
"As we are making war on terrorists, we clearly realise it is international terrorism we are dealing with, wherever it may base-in Ingushetia, Ossetia or Chechnya. We are fighting them, and we shall try to kill them off as we have been doing," Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's First Deputy Prime Minister, said to national television Channel One. His father, Chechen President, died in a terror act last spring.
The Beslan school seizure proves that "the terrorists are inhuman. They have no sublime idea-nothing at all they would hold sacred. September 1 is a jubilant festive day. They made it tragic for the kids and for us all. There is no more chance to have talks with them," he said in grim resolution.
The Coordination Centre of North Caucasian Muslims is circulating a public statement to "express indignation and denounce the terror act in which innocents were taken hostage. The terrorists have captured kids and babies to show their true self, with its appalling cynicism. They have been driven into a deadlock, and are now unblushingly making headlong demands to demonstrate-to their masters and benefactors, above all-that they are still to reckon with. These devils must be ousted from our land and community."
The phenomenon of Shahidism is sacred to every Muslim, and what terrorists are now doing clashes with the Muslim canon, points out the statement as it expresses condolence with the bereaved and compassion with the injured.
