Dagestan commemorates victims of terror acts in Makhachkala and Buinaksk

Today, mourning actions were held in Makhachkala and Buinaksk in memory of the victims of two terror acts - on September 4, 1998, in Parkhomenko Street in Makhachkala and in Buinaksk on September 4, 1999, where an apartment house was blown up in the military settlement.

Today, 9 and 10 years passed after the most terrible tragedies in the modern history of Dagestan.

On September 4, 1998, an explosion of a car stuffed with 150 kg of explosive in Parkhomenko Street in Makhachkala killed 18 persons, wounded about a hundred and destroyed 28 family houses. A whole micro-district was ruined, and damaged was caused to the buildings of the national television, agrarian academy and a number of other educational institutions located around the place of explosion.

The terror act was aimed against Makhachkala Mayor Said Amirov who lives in Parkhomenko Street; fortunately, the head of the city did not suffer.

On February 8, 2004, Magomed Mukhtarov, also known as "Gorbaty" (Humpbacked), a native of Kuppa village, Levashinskiy District of Dagestan, who had been in international search, was detained as a suspect of organizing the terror act.

Later, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld Magomed Mukhtarov's verdict to 23 years of imprisonment for committing the explosion in Makhachkala.

The investigation found Mukhtarov to be one of the two organizers of the terror act, the second one, Magomed Khanov, Mukhtarov's cousin, had been earlier sentenced to life imprisonment.

On September 4, 1999, in the settlement in Buinaksk, Dagestan, a car stuffed with explosive was blown up near a five-floor apartment block in Shakhsaidov Street, inhabited by officers' families of the 136th Brigade of the Ministry of Defence.

The explosion killed 58 persons, 146 received various traumas. Among the casualties - 21 child, 18 women and 13 men; six persons died later from their wounds.

The explosive was placed in a lorry. The second one - a MAZ truck with about 100 kg of trotyl - was parked between the military hospital and another apartment house. Its clockwork was set to 1:30 a.m. on September 5. The new tragedy was prevented by a sentry.

Subsequently, it was established that the terror act was ordered by international terrorist Hattab who had paid 300,000 US dollars for it to the criminals.

In March 2001, the Supreme Court of Dagestan passed a sentence to the executors of the terror act. I. Zainutdinov and A. Salikhov were sentenced to life imprisonment, and M. Magomedov and A. Abdulkadyrov - to 9 years of imprisonment each.