Nazir Yevloyev, a spokesman for the Ingush Interior Ministry, said four unidentified assailants attacked Uruskhan Zyazikov and his relatives, who were traveling to a mosque near Nazran, the largest city in the republic. During the attack, which occurred around midday, one of the president's relatives was wounded in the leg, the assailants then fled the crime scene in a car after kidnapping Uruskhan Zyazikov.
Uruskhan Zyazikov is the father of Rostambek Zyazikov, who is the chief of the president's security guard service. Local law enforcement bodies said that one theory surrounding the investigation is that Uruskhan's kidnap could be connected with his son's professional activities.
"Uruskhan Zyazikov has never been involved in political activities and has lived a normal life," Yevloey said. "His kidnapping along with the assault on the relatives of the Ingush president [Murat Zyazikov] is provocation and aimed at destabilizing the situation in the republic."
This is a second kidnapping of Murat Zyazikov's relatives in Ingushetia, a republic bordering on restive Chechnya, in February last year the Ingush president's father-in-law was also abducted by unknown people.
On February 27, Magomed Chakhkiyev, the chairman of the legislature's Committee on Agrarian Policy and the Ingush president's father-in-law, was traveling home to Nazran, when his car came under automatic rifle fire. The driver lost control of the car and collided with a crash barrier. Having knocked out the driver, the culprits abducted the MP.
He was set free two months later in the course of a special police operation in Ingushetia and the police detained several people suspected of abducting the official.
