Victims of 2004 terrorist attack commemorated in Ingushetia

© Photo: Maria Novoselova/Vestnik Kavkaza

A mourning event was held in Ingushetia in connection with the 20th anniversary of the attack on the republic by Shamil Basayev’s gang. In 2004, as a result of an attempted invasion of the republic by militants, over 100 Ingush residents, mostly police officers, were killed.

In Ingushetia, June 22 is both the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow and the date when a terrorist attack was carried out in the republic in 2004. Today, in Nazran, along with the commemorative events in honor of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, about 500 Ingush residents honored the memory of the victims of the crime against humanity committed by Shamil Basayev’s gang 20 years ago.

Families of law enforcement officers killed in 2004, officials and ordinary citizens gathered at the Nazran Memorial of Memory and Glory. The leader of Ingushetia, Mahmud-Ali Kalimatov, addressed the event participants, emphasizing that Basayev chose June 22 as the day for the attack on the republic for a reason.

“I think that in 2004, gangs of international terrorists specifically chose June 22 to attack Ingushetia: then, over 100 people died, most of them law enforcement officers,”

– Mahmud-Ali Kalimatov said.