17:00, 7 April 2004

Operation to detain Maskhadov is underway

Special operations units of the federal forces and the Vostok battalion under the command of Sulim Yamadayev are conducting an operation to detain separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov in the southern part of Chechnya, reported the regional headquarters on the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus on April 7.

"Maskhadov is supposed to be in one of the villages in the Vedeno or Nozhay-Yurt districts. And an operation to detain Maskahdov's subordinate Doku Umarov, who declared himself to be a "successor" of eliminated Gelayev, is underway in the western part of Chechnya," the headquarters informed.

The Chechen president's security service has information that Maskhadov was secretly moved to a village in the southern part of the republic. About 20 rebels who arranged his movement there have been detained.

According to the headquarters, 30 rebels from Maskhadov's unit gave themselves up to the Chechen law-enforcement agencies the day before. Now there are no more than 60 people in his entourage, the most active members of the unit constituting less than a half of them.

Source: NTV TV Company