NALCHIK. Jan 26 (Interfax-South) - The police of Russia's internal republic of Kabardino-Balkaria are continuing negotiations with a group of extremists who took two women hostage in the suburbs of Nalchik.
Sources in the republic's law enforcement agencies told Interfax on Wednesday that "the militants have rejected the police officers' demand to surrender and walk out of the building one by one. However, they have expressed a desire to leave the building together." The group's leader Muslim Atayev has categorically refused to leave the building, one of the sources said.
The women being held in Building No. 19 on Nalchik's Severnaya Street, which was surrounded on Tuesday, are "the extremists' wives and friends," the source said.
From three to five members of the Yarmuk guerrilla group, including their leader Atayev, are hiding in the building, sources in the republic's Interior Ministry said.
The group was involved in a clash with police units in Kabardino-Balkaria's Chegem district in August 2004, killing two policemen and injuring another four. Two militants were killed in the clash.
Atayev's group members are believed to have been involved in an attack on the State Drug Control Service's branch for Kabardino-Balkaria on the night of December 14, 2004, killing four agency officials and stealing more than 250 firearms, the law enforcement sources said.