09 January 2004, 19:38
Victims of capture of Kizlyar by Salman Raduyev's rebels commemorated in Dagestan
Today, January 9, people in Dagestan are commemorating victims of the capture of the town of Kizlyar and the village of Pervomayskoye by Raduyev's group on January 9, 1996. Over 50 people were killed then, 174 people got injuries.
In the morning, thousands of people went to the central park of Kizlyar to lay flowers at the memorial to the people killed by the rebels.
Over 200 rebels led by Salman Raduyev intruded into Kizlyar on the night of January 8-9, 1996. They blocked a hospital and a local military unit's territory, and tried to capture an aerodrome. Then they fell back into the building of the town hospital, driving in there over 2,000 hostages from neighboring houses. On January 10, the separatists took about 160 hostages, left Kizlyar and made for Chechnya. They stopped near the administrative border and took cover in the village of Pervomayskoye. 82 people were set free in the course of the operation to release the hostages, 150 rebels were destroyed, and 30 rebels were taken prisoners. The Supreme Court of Dagestan passed life sentence on Raduyev in December 2001. He died in the colony for people sentenced to life imprisonment in the Perm region on December 13, 2003.
Source: ITAR-TASS News Agency