KHANKALA. March 29 (Interfax-AVN) - A member of Timur Abubakarov's guerilla unit, reporting directly to warlord Shamil Basaev, was apprehended in Grozny in the course of a special operation, conducted by federal forces, the regional headquarters directing ant-terrorist efforts in the North Caucasus told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"Law-enforcement agencies have proof that the man in question participated in a number of terrorist attacks in Chechnya, which resulted in casualties among Chechen residents, law-enforcement officials, and servicemen," a headquarters official said.
According to him, the militant has already confessed to crimes. For instance, he said that in September 2003 he killed a policeman in the village of Novye Atagi of Chechnya's Shali district. In July that year, he placed a makeshift explosive charge on the approaches to the same village. A serviceman, inspecting the road between Shali and Novye Atagi, was killed, when the explosive charge blew up.
"In addition to that, the special operation resulted in detecting an arms cache, storing a machine gun and ammunition," the official said.
The location of another arms cache was disclosed by a resident of the Itum-Kale district, who had given himself up to law-enforcement agencies. According to the headquarters official, the militant said that he had been attached to Sayed-Emin Dadayev's unit. In December 2004, he left the unit and has been hiding ever since for fear of revenge from guerillas. He said that in autumn 2004 a certain Lecha Aldamov (killed in a special operation in December 2004) and he established an arms cache on the southeastern slope of Mount Bolshaya in the Bugoroi meadow in the Itum-Kale district. The arms cache stored a rocket launcher, and 82-mm mortar shells, intended for making an explosive charge.