Residents of Dagestan report on calm situation in CTO area

At 1:00 p.m. Moscow time of January 17, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) legal regime was introduced within a separate section of the Buynaksk District and the adjacent Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan. According an official from the Dagestani operational headquarters of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), law enforcers are searching for militants and their accomplices.

According to local residents questioned by the "Caucasian Knot", they virtually do not feel the action of the CTO legal regime, and they got no formal notification of the introduction of any restrictions.

"In the villages of Dorgeli, Paraul, Verkhneye Kazanische, or Manasaul, nobody heard of the CTO legal regime. Roads are not blocked. I've hardly noticed any checkpoints, and everything is quiet. I believe they are searching for militants in the woods. Here, the situation became calm in recent years, while earlier, even in summers, local women feared to go to the woods for berries and herbs, since the situation was not calm," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been told by Isa Aliev, a resident of Buynaksk, who works as a taxi driver.

Aliya, a resident of the village of Nizhneye Kazanische of the Buynaksk District, also told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that no restrictions were introduced in her village.

"I work at school. In case of a special operation, we would have been informed about it, warned not to go outside and to send children home. However, everything is calm, and no one announced anything. We heard no fire and saw no soldiers," the woman said.

Meanwhile, Magomednabi, a resident of the Buynaksk District, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he saw military vehicles on the road between Buynaksk and district centre of Levashi.

"When I saw military vehicles and soldiers on the road, I thought that they would again search for someone. I do not know who can hide in the woods in such a cold weather. However, in the evening, we also heard no shots. Everything is quiet here," he said.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.