The National Antiterrorist Committee of Daghestan has confirmed the death of the leader of the Khunzakh militant group.

The committee announced a counter-terrorist operation (KTO) in the village of Orota, in the Khunzakh District of Daghestan, on the evening of 13 August.

‘We had information that the leader of the Khunzakh bandit group, Khadzhimurad Hajiyev, was in the village. During the special operation, we surrounded the house Hajiyev was in. Before the operation began he released a woman from the house, but he refused to leave himself. When police demanded he surrender, he opened fire’, a source in the Interior Ministry told OC Media.

The special operation lasted for several hours, with police reporting by the following morning that Hajiyev had been killed. The police did not suffer any casualties.

After the operation, police searched the house, seizing a number of weapons.

Khadzhimurad Hajiyev better known as Abubakar, participated in a number of terrorist attacks in Russia, including the murder of an imam in the village of Gotzatl and extortion of money from local entrepreneurs, according to our source in the Interior Ministry.  

He was declared wanted in Russia in 2014.

Khunzakh District is located in a mountainous area in the south-west of Daghestan. More than 1,500 people live in the Orota, where the counter-terrorist operation was announced. During this time, residents’ movement is restricted, and mobile communications are cut off.