MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax) - A criminal group that attacked the house of the Ingush education minister on Thursday included three policemen, the Russian Interior Ministry press center said.
"Officers from the Russian Interior Ministry operative services for Ingushetia have determined that a criminal group that committed an armed attack on the house of the Ingush education minister in the city of Magas on Thursday morning included three policemen. Proofs revealing their involvement in criminal activities have been obtained," the ministry said in a statement posted on its website on Friday.
These people have already been discharged from police, it said.
"The leadership of the Russian Interior Ministry department for Ingushetia has ordered an official inquiry, based on whose results the heads of the units where the detained officers served will also be discharged. All materials that have been gathered have been passed to investigative agencies to make procedural decisions," it said.
The gang that attacked the Ingush education minister's home was likely responsible for other armed attacks, and part of the money they stole was used to finance the criminal underworld, it said.
A source from Ingush law enforcement bodies told Interfax earlier that a group of armed men committed an armed robbery of Ingush Education Minister Lemka Izmailova's house on Thursday. Police quickly tracked the attackers down on the outskirts of the village of Ekazhevo. The attackers offered armed resistance, and one of them was killed and several others wounded in an exchange of fire with police.
An Interior Ministry source said the same attackers were likely responsible for an armed attack on a deputy health minister of Ingushetia.