Russia suffered a brutal terrorist attack on the night of Friday, 22 March at the Crocus Concert Hall in Moscow. Over 130 persons were killed and more than 150 were wounded and the concert hall was blown up with explosives during the attack for which ISIS has taken responsibility.
Soon after the terrorist attack, Russian security forces launched a widespread manhunt for the perpetrators who had managed to escape. Four terrorists were captured alive by Russian forces while trying to flee towards the Ukrainian border.
Nearly 14 hours after the terrorist attack, the Russian security force FSB announced that a total of 11 suspects have been detained, including 4 terrorists who were directly involved in the attacks. The four terrorists were arrested from the Bryansk region close to the Ukrainian border.
“Soldiers of the Akhmat-Russia regiment of the Russian Ministry of Defense, stationed in the Bryansk region, detained the four shooters in the Bryansk region, about 340 km away from Moscow, and just 100 km from the border with Ukraine”, Sputnik reported.
Though not from Russian official or government channels, but videos of the capture soon went viral on social media. The videos showed how the terrorists were captured and treated thereafter by Russian security forces. One video showed a terrorist being brutally beaten and whimpering, while a security officer cuts off his ear and stuffs it in his wailing mouth.
That terrorist, now identified as an immigrant from Tajikistan named Rachabulizod Saidakrami was presented in court with a battered face and heavy bandage over his severed ear.
Another terrorist named Muhammadsobir Fayzov was presented in court in an unconscious state, probably from the third-degree treatment given to him during interrogation.
Unconfirmed images on social media also showed one of the terrorists, his face turned away, writhing in pain as his genitals were electrocuted using wires from a battery.
Shamsidin Fariduni, Muhammadsobir Fayzov, Dalerdjon Mirzoyev, and Rachabulizod Saidakrami are all immigrants from Tajikistan, some of them living in Moscow illegally. Moscow’s Basmanny Court has now sanctioned their arrest and interrogation till May 22, 2024, Tass reported.
All Tajik immigrants, not a single Russian citizen
As per reports, all 4 terrorists are Tajik immigrants, some possibly illegals, and they stayed in a hostel together in Moscow. They hail from the Yaroslavl, Ivanovo and Samara regions of Tajikistan and can speak only broken Russian, one of them does not speak Russian at all. During initial interrogation, the terrorists had confessed that they were contacted by a person identified as ‘Assistant of the preacher’ who promised them a lot of money if they killed people. Their claims are yet to be corroborated.
Demand for the death penalty grows in Russia after Moscow attack
Russia had removed the provision of the death penalty under a moratorium in the 1990s. However, after the brutality of the attack on the Crocus Concert Hall shocked the public, there is reportedly a growing demand among the citizenry to bring back the death penalty.
“It is necessary to bring back the death penalty when it comes to terrorism and murder,” Yury Afonin, deputy head of the State Duma’s security committee, was quoted by The Moscow Times.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy head of the security council, advocated strongly for the death penalty. “Terrorists only understand retaliatory terror…death for death,” Medvedev posted on social media.