Police raids continue on the Tangim mosque in Makhachkala

| News, North Caucasus

On May 3, the law enforcement conducted another raid near the "Tangim" mosque in Makhachkala, reported Caucasian Knot.

According to the reports of Idris Yusupov, a journalist who attends the services at the mosque, law enforcement agencies have already conducted raids at the mosque for two weeks. Should the raids near the mosque continue, its Imams and the public council of the "Tangim" mosque will seek to set up a meeting with the head of Dagestan, Vladimir Vasiliev. This was stated to the Caucasus Knot by Akhmed Chililov, a member of the mosque’s public council.

The members of the public council and the Imam of the mosque are labeled as "extremists" by the law enforcement bodies. The "Tangim" mosque is considered to be a Salafi institution; and it is not supervised by the local Muftiate (state-affiliated organization that organizes the religious sphere). The law enforcement agencies conduct these frequent raids against the mosque under the suspicion that its followers are associated with the Islamic State (ISIS). These raiding practices of the authorities had already been criticized by human rights defenders in the past, as they may have led to the growing radicalization of young people in the North Caucasus.

In 2015, ISIS declared that it had established a "franchise" in the North Caucasus. Since the declaration of the ISIS franchise, armed attacks had been reported in the republics of Dagestan and Chechnya. On 23 April 2019, five members of the IS were arrested under the allegation of preparing an attack against police officials in Grozny and Kaspiysk.

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