On a festive morning on May 9, 2016, residents of the village of Alkhan-Kala (Chechnya) were woken up by the rumble of an explosion. Checkpoint 138 has become the scene of a terrorist attack by militants who belong to groups that do not want peace and stability in the area. What happened that day was widely covered by the media, the messages of which add up to a picture of a pre-thought out and prepared crime. But first, some information about the village where the tragedy erupted.
Some statistics
The village of Alkhan-Kala is located in the Grozny district of Chechnya. This is a fairly large settlement. According to information for 2016, its population is approaching twelve thousand people. At their disposal are three secondary schools, a training and production plant, a department store, a cinema and a dozen retail outlets. Residents of Alkhan-Kala do not face employment problems - a poultry farm operates in the territory of their village, and the Kularinsky state farm is located nearby.
A small historical background
During the Middle Ages, the vast and powerful state of Alania was located in the foothills of the North Caucasus, and as a result of excavations conducted in the village by Soviet archaeologists, it became known that this place was already inhabited by the ancestors of modern Chechens in those ancient times. This was evidenced by the large number of household items found in the earth, weapons and jewelry that did not leave doubts about their belonging to the Alanian culture.
The village of Alkhan-Kala begins its history during the Caucasian War of 1817-1864. On the opposite bank of the Sunzha River was the Russian fortress "Golden Valley", the remains of which can be seen today. It is known that after bloody battles she was captured by troops under the command of Shamil’s closest associates, the Gendargen brothers.
The origin of the name of the village
These desperate warriors not only defeated the Russian outpost, but at the same time took over the lands surrounding it, among which were the mowing of a wealthy landowner named Alhi. Litigation began, during which the brothers resorted to the help of their patron, Shamil. Not wanting to come into conflict with the formidable imam, Alikh considered it prudent to move to the opposite bank of Sunzha and there to establish a new settlement, the name of which was derived from his name - Alkhan-Kala (the city of Alkhi).
Russian-speaking population of the village
In the pre-revolutionary period, the village was called Ermolovskoe, in honor of the famous Russian general, who made a significant contribution to the conquest of the warlike tribes of the Caucasus. Characteristically, this name is often used in our days by its Russian-speaking inhabitants, and it also bears a railway station located nearby. In former times, it was inhabited mainly by Cossacks and settlers - immigrants from Russia, whose task was to monitor the observance of the rule of law and state interests in this extremely troubled area.
Already in the Soviet period, a railway leading to Grozny was laid through the village of Alkhan-Kala. Old-timers, of whom there are very few today, bitterly recall how trains traveled along it, taking thousands of Chechens - women, children and old people (men who fought at the front) sentenced to deportation to the Kyrgyz and Kazakh steppes. Those few who happened to return back in 1957 created the Chechen community, but the Russian population in those years still prevailed.
People who glorified their village and republic
In the years preceding the aggravation of the political situation in Chechnya, there were many people among the villagers who became the pride of their republic. Among them, it should be noted the famous doctor - plastic surgeon Hassan Zhunidovich Bayev, for his achievements in medicine, repeatedly awarded the title "Person of the Year" in America, Japan and the UK, as well as becoming the winner of the "Doctor of the World" award. This amazing man managed to achieve unprecedented results in sports, becoming the world champion in sambo and the winner of the US championship in fighting without rules. Truly, a talented person is talented in everything.
The Chechen village of Alkhan-Kala, whose photos are presented in the article, gave Russia many other wonderful people. Among them are the well-known banker A. A. Arsamakov, honored artist, puppeteer Y. Yu. Delaev, human rights lawyer M. A. Musaev and several others well-known far beyond the borders of their republic. All of them more than once became the heroes of television and radio programs, as well as publications in the Russian and foreign press. The Chechen Republic is rightfully proud of them .
Alkhan-Kala during the bloody clashes
A sad role was assigned to the village during the last Chechen wars that swept through the mountains of the Caucasus. As a result of hostilities, many of its inhabitants (especially Russians) were forced to leave their homes and share the bitter fate of refugees. There is numerous evidence of the atrocities perpetrated against the Russian-speaking population, the majority of which in those years were elderly people. There is no doubt that they were committed not as an integral part of the interethnic conflict, but solely for the purpose of seizing the property of victims and personal enrichment.
In general, the Wahhabi mood in him was very strong, suffice it to say that among the inhabitants there were such ardent supporters of separatism and the creation of a Sharia state, as field commander Arbi Baraev and his niece, the notorious martyr Khava Baraeva. This seventeen-year-old girl in June 2000 carried out a terrorist attack that received wide resonance not only in our country, but also abroad.
Uncle and his niece
Near a federal military facility, she fired a TNT-fueled truck. The result of her actions was the death of three Russian troops and the wounding of five others. Unfortunately, this unlawful act was perceived by many in Chechnya as a heroic act worthy of imitation. A song was even composed about Khava Baraeva, which became very popular among the people.
The fact that these people constituted a contingent of illegal armed groups of those years can be obtained by the example of the uncle of this young terrorist - the aforementioned Arbi Barayev. Having risen to the rank of brigadier general of the Republic of Ichkeria during the first Chechen war and being deprived of this rank Aslan Maskhadov, in the period preceding the start of the next military campaign, he became widely known as a gangster specializing in kidnapping and the leader of a gang of slave traders, many of whom were killed residents of Chechnya and surrounding areas.
Activization of gangs
During the periods of both Chechen campaigns, the Russian military were forced to conduct numerous “sweeps” and special operations in the village, which resulted in the arrests of all those involved in illegal military units. These actions, in turn, gave rise to new waves of violence from the armed underground existing in the village of Alkhan-Kala (Chechnya), the actions of which were becoming more active.
The attacks they committed resulted in several killings of representatives of the legitimate authorities - village leaders and police officers, as well as those who collaborated with the Russian military. In addition, several explosions of military equipment of the federal troops were carried out. Only at the end of the war, when relative calm was established in Chechnya, did the village of Alkhan-Kala establish a peaceful life. Gradually, the former refugees began to return to it, whose efforts restored the houses devastated by the war.
Alkhan-Kala. Gearbox 188
However, it is time to return to the events of May morning of 2006. It was a holiday, and the village was still asleep. At about 6:15 a.m., two men approached checkpoint 138, located on the Grozny-Alkhan-Kala highway, where a combined detachment from Bashkiria was serving. One of them had a backpack. When asked about the goal that forced them to leave home at such an inopportune time, they replied that they were going to look for sheep that had fought back the day before from the herd. The policeman on duty, not satisfied with the answer, tried to check their documents, and then the one who had the backpack activated the improvised explosive device that was in it . His companion threw a grenade towards the police and tried to open fire from a pistol, but was destroyed by fire to defeat.
As a result of the explosion, six policemen were injured, and three of them were taken to hospital in an extremely serious condition. Investigative authorities soon managed to identify the attackers. They turned out to be residents of the village of Kirov, located near Grozny, Shamil Dzhanaraliev and Akhmed Inalov. Both, as it turned out, are still very young people. The first of them was barely twenty-seven years old, and his partner was two years younger. There is no doubt about the reliability of this information, as their closest relatives took part in identifying the bodies of the criminals.
Arrest of partners in a crime
In accordance with Russian law, a criminal case was opened under two articles at once - about an encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officials and illegal acquisition of weapons. Despite the fact that the attackers themselves were dead, the investigation still had to find out who directed their actions.
Very soon, as a result of operational-search actions, five members of an underground terrorist group were detained, who were most directly related to the militants who committed the attack in Alkhan-Kala. From their testimony, it became clear that the killed militants were the leaders of an illegal armed group, which over the last time managed to involve the arrested.
There is information about one of them, Dzhanaraliev, that six months before the atrocity he committed, he tried to leave Chechnya and illegally move to Syria, but was detained by law enforcement agencies. Only the appeals of numerous relatives sent to the leadership of the republic saved him from punishment and made it possible to return to a peaceful life, which in reality turned out to be just a screen behind which he did not stop committing illegal actions.
Statement by the head of the republic
Regarding the incident in the village (Alkhan-Kala, Chechnya), the acting head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov made a statement. In his appeal, he emphasized that what had happened should be regarded as a grave crime aimed at destabilizing the situation in the region. According to him, in the near future all forces will be activated to combat the consequences of the attack and prevent attempts to recur.
Ramzan Kadyrov assured the citizens of Russia that counteraction to all illegal actions aimed at the escalation of tension will be carried out on a large scale and will take on the character of an uncompromising struggle. In his statement, he also noted that the process of recognizing Chechnya as a prosperous and stable republic is currently in full swing in the world, and he, as its leader, will make every effort so that no renegades can prevent this.