MAKHACHKALA, October 18 (RIA Novosti) – A police officer who was wounded Thursday in an exchange of gunfire with a suspected militant in Russia's restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan has died, a representative of the republic’s Investigative Committee told RIA Novosti Friday.
The police captain succumbed to his injuries in a hospital, he said.
A criminal case has been opened into the incident on four charges, including an attempt on the life of a law enforcement officer, participation in an illegal armed group, causing grievous bodily harm and illegal possession of weapons.
The suspected militant was killed Thursday night when he opened fire on police as they stopped his car in the town of Khasavyurt. He was killed by return fire.
Khasavyurt lies on the border with the republic of Chechnya, which saw a series of bloody post-Soviet separatist wars but has in recent years seen a fall in the incidence of violent clashes between militant groups and law enforcement officials.
More than a decade after the formal end of the federal military campaign against separatists in Chechnya, Russian security forces continue to fight militants in neighboring Dagestan and other regions in the area, who 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.
