One police officer was killed and another injured in a knife attack Monday evening in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Russian media reported, citing law enforcement officials.
A local man armed with a knife stabbed two traffic officers on patrol around 9:00 pm in the town of Achkhoy-Martan before being shot dead by return fire, investigators said.
Authorities launched a criminal investigation into the attempted murder of a law enforcement official, according to a statement by the Chechen branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The law enforcement body, which probes major crimes, said it was working to establish the circumstances of the attack but did not reveal the suspected attacker’s identity.
One of the officers later died of his injuries, the Kommersant newspaper business newspaper reported Tuesday morning, citing the regional Investigative Committee’s Telegram channel. The original post has since been deleted for unknown reasons.
Achkhoy-Martan is located 35 kilometers (21.8 miles) east of Grozny, Chechnya’s capital city.
In 2019, a series of stabbing attacks claimed by the Islamic State took place in the Muslim-majority republic. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov at the time dismissed the incidents as tactics introduced to Russia by Western “foes.”
Kadyrov has ruled Chechnya with an iron grip for nearly two decades following two brutal wars between Moscow and separatist forces in the 1990s and early 2000s. Rights groups have long accused him of widespread abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings.
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