Sergey Goncharov: “If a girl wears hijab, it doesn’t mean she is a suicide bomber”

Interview by Maria Sidelnikova, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

A suicide bomber committed a terrorist attack in a Volgograd bus on October 21st. All victims of the crime were identified; the injured people were taken to hospital; psychologists are helping them to overcome the stress. The whole city remains in a panic. If forecasts by experts become true that the Volgograd terrorist attack is only a beginning of a series of similar crimes, fear can spread to all Russian major cities.

Sergey Goncharov, president of the Association of Veterans of Alfa, told Vestnik Kavkaza how to detect a terrorist in the crowd.

-          Sergey Alexeyevich, are there any peculiarities of terrorists in the crowd?

-          First of all, you should understand whether you are mentally able to detect a person. Today everybody is afraid of Islamic extremism, terrorism. It is especially notable at the domestic level. When a girl in hijab or a man wearing Islamic clothes enters metro, many people begin to worry, many of them are afraid of them. It is easier to exist the bus or the train. It is a domestic moment. We shouldn’t say that everybody is a terrorist.

If you feel internal tension and discomfort, of course, it is better to leave the place.

Moreover, many people feel discomfort in crowdy places. It is a problem of a certain person. Others don’t care about this. Every person has his or her own mood. But it is a prejudice that if a girl wears hijab, she is a terrorist. It is not so, and people should react calmly to this.

-          Along with clothes, are there any tips on terrorist behavior?

-          It seems everybody understands how a person who causes suspicions can be detected in the crowd. It is nervous behavior – hand twitching, abrupt movements, shifty eyes. It means that a person is nervous. You know that a customs serviceman doesn’t ask everybody to open a bag, because he has gut feeling, he detects a person who is nervous and says: “Open your bag.” Others pass calmly. It is about professional experience.