Moscow holds rallies commemorating Beslan attack victims

A number of rallies and other events to honor victims of terrorist attacks, including the one in Beslan in 2004, were held in Moscow on Monday, the Day of Solidarity in the Fight Against Terrorism, the city authorities said, UrduPoint reported citing Sputnik. The day marks the 14th anniversary of the tragic events in Russia's city of Beslan, where hundreds of children and adults were held hostage by terrorists in a school. Over 300 people were killed, hundreds were injured.

As deputy chairman of the Ossetian government, Boris Dzhanaev, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, memory of the dead, both children and adults, will remain in the hearts of people forever. "14 years have passed since this terrible tragedy, when terrorist attacked school in Beslan. Many innocent people were killed: children, their parents, teachers and those brave people who fought to free them. Today in Moscow we see that many indifferent people came here to pay tribute to all of those victims. We must remember them, honor them and never forget that fighting against evil is the most important thing," he said.

Beksoltan Urtaev, chairman of Moscow's Osetian community, stressed that September 3 is an important day. "It's a day of terrible tragedy. I wish something like that never happened again, especially not with children. Children are our bright future, guarantee of future happiness. There's nothing more sacred than children, they're a gift to us all, and people without children look at the world in a completely different way. 14 years ago we lost so many of them, and we must remember and pass on memory from generation to generation so that this terrible tragedy never happened again," Urtaev said.

One of Moscow students who grew up in Beslan also stressed that it's very important to preserve memory of the Beslan tragedy. "I'm from Beslan, my friends died during this terrorist attack, and I came here today to commemorate their memory. I think that this memory should be passed on to our descendants, so that they know that terrorism is evil. It must never happen again," he said.

Chairman of the Migration Issues and Socio-Cultural Adaptation of Foreign Citizens Commission of the Interethnic Relations Council under Russian President, Aslambek Paskachev, said that death of children is the most terrible thing that can happen.

"This grief unites all people who are not indifferent to human misfortune, especially to children. Children are the most important thing that we create in life. We all must unite to prevent repetition of this tragedy. For me and for my friends, for us, Caucasians, this is especially important. It's very scary when people view these terrorist acts, these terrible tragedies as just another news. People must not forget about this tragedy that involved children," Paskachev said.