Researchers of Caucasus criticize official version of shootout in Chechnya

The statement of law enforcers that those killed in the shootout in Chechnya had links with militants is not convincing enough, but people need to wait for the investigators' conclusions, experts believe. The casualties were buried in a nameless grave, said a relative of one of them.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 11, in the village of Martan-Chu of the Urus-Martan District, two young men, born in 1994 and 2001, tried, according to law enforcers, to hijack a car, rendered armed resistance and were shot dead. Ramzan Kadyrov blamed their fathers for the fact that their sons "went to war."

It is unlikely that the casualties had links with the armed underground, an expert on Northern Caucasus believes. According to his story, the fact that the guys were armed with one hunting rifle evidences against the law enforcers' version; besides, no one was hurt by the guys' actions.

It was not necessary to kill the young men, even if they "went to war," since important information can be obtained from living militants, said Mikhail Roschin, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

He did not rule out that those killed "were negatively assessing the socio-political processes in Chechnya," but he doubted that had been involved in the armed underground.

In his turn, Sergey Goncharov, the president of the international association of veterans of the "Alfa" antiterrorist unit, has noted that the guys were the first to open fire on law enforcers; therefore the latter had reasons to open a return fire.

According to Adlan, an activist of a Chechen NGO, no casualties' relatives have turned to human rights organizations for help.