Five people have been arrested in Daghestan on charges of organising and participating in a terrorist community, illegal possession of explosives and substances, and preparation to commit a terrorist act.

The arrests were reported by the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Monday, which cited sources from Russia’s security services. 

The unidentified source told RIA Novosti that the five suspects bought components to make an explosive device. 

SHOT, a Russian Telegram channel affiliated with the security services, claimed that the detainees kept a tonne of ammonium nitrate in a cache in the village of Staraya Serebryakovka in the Kizlyar district, located 166 kilometres from the capital Makhachkala.

Following their arrest, the Sovetsky District Court of Makhachkala ordered the detainees into pretrial detention for two months. 

While the names of the suspects were not officially reported, the Telegram channel Mash Gor wrote it was 32-year-old Ali Aliyev, 34-year-old Yalimkhan Aliyev, 26-year-old Kasum Akuyev, 19-year-old Alibek Alibekov, and 29-year-old Murtazali Magomedov. Mash Gor also claimed that the suspects were going to carry out an attack on behalf of the Islamic State.

If convicted, the detainees could face life in prison. 

The latest in a series of arrests

These arrests mark the latest in a series of arrests of suspected terrorists in recent weeks. 

On Monday, a 15-year-old resident of Urus-Martan, Chechnya, was arrested on charges of allegedly preparing to carry out a terrorist attack on local law enforcement on the orders of the Islamic State. It was not clear from the official report when exactly the suspect was arrested, but his criminal case has already been sent to court.

At the end of November, two local residents were detained in Daghestan on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack ‘on one of the republic’s state institutions’. According to the investigation, the suspects were planning to make an improvised explosive device for this purpose, and had purchased the components in the village of Kurush in the republic’s Khasavyurtovsky district.

After some years of relative calm, there have been increasing terrorist incidents in the North Caucasus in recent months, including a high-profile attack in the summer. 

The largest attack in years in the region occurred in Daghestan in June, when a group of armed men launched simultaneous assaults on churches, synagogues, and police officers in Makhachkala and Derbent. In the ensuing hours, 22 people were killed, 16 of whom were police officers. Five of the attackers were killed on the spot while another four were arrested and are now on trial.

In early November, the Memorial human rights centre reported that mass ‘mop-ups’ had been carried out in Chechnya after an attack on a Rosgvardiya convoy on 26 October, which killed two soldiers. According to human rights activists, ‘hundreds of people’ were detained in the Grozny district alone. Those swept up in the raids were reportedly offered a choice by police, to join the full-scale in Ukraine, or go to prison on falsified charges.