Daud Ipulayev, who had fought the Afghan war, may consider himself lucky … . He, a native of Belgatoi village in the Shali region, was among those rounded up by Russian forces in the latest raid. During his war years in Afghanistan, he had received an eye injury. On December 20 Russian troops converged on the village of Belgatoi. They blocked all access to the village and began house-to-house raids, taking away all males at the age of 14 to 60. Noticing that Daud has no eye, the “sweepers” immediately branded him a rebel fighter. Russian troops have a reputation of spotting a Chechen militant by eye. They don’t bother themselves with looking for proofs: a ‘strange’ bruise could mean being a rebel fighter for them. Unlike six persons arrested together with him, Ipulayev managed to prove that the wound is of many years ago, and was released. The other six were taken away to a commandant’s office in the Shali region, which is notorious for not letting people got into its custody ever return home … . Like it happened to Rizvan Kadyrov from Novye Atagi village. He was taken away from his native village by an armored personnel carrier. Having beaten his family, Russian soldiers took away Rizvan allegedly to the Shali infamous commandant’s office. However, when his relatives rushed to Shali to make inquiries about Rizvan, they were told no one of such name had been delivered to them.
Rizvan Kadyrov is not the only ‘disappearance’ in Novye Atagi. On December 5, an armored personnel carrier with hull number 304 pulled up to the Kasumovs’ house. The head of the Kasumovs’ family is a former artist and a person held in respect by his fellow villagers. When soldiers burst into the house and tried to seize 23-year-old Akhmad, all the family rushed to his help. Standing upon no ceremonies, soldiers beat
Akhmad’s father, pushed his sister back with a rifle butt and ‘captured the criminal’.
When Russian soldiers came to take away Khamzat Debizov, his five-year-old niece came to his defense along all with adult family members. Seeing that soldiers gagged her mother with a pistol, threatening to pull the trigger if she tried to help Khamzat, the little girl rushed to her defense. Our armed-to-the-teeth defenders of the Constitutional order beat the girl so severely that her scream was heard in neighboring houses. Khamzat, suspected of links to Chechen armed resistance groups, was brought to the Shali commandant’s office. What happened to him afterwards, and whether he is still alive or not nobody knows … .