Militants claim attack at Russia’s largest hydroelectric plant, 75 people killed

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Officials say tragedy caused by technical fault, not attack
* 25 people killed in another attack on Nazran police

MOSCOW: A jihadi group claimed responsibility for killing 75 people in a terrorist attack at Russia’s largest hydroelectric plant, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the site on Friday and confirmed the killings.

Russian investigators denied the claim by Riyadus Salikhiin, a militant group with roots in Chechnya, that it had hit the power station on Monday. The claim, posted on the organisation’s website, also said the group had carried out a suicide bombing at a police headquarters in Russia’s Ingushetia region that killed two dozen people.

Officials claim: Rejecting the claims, officials said the dam tragedy was caused by a technical fault and there was no evidence of an attack. “Russian security service explosives experts have found no trace of explosive material at the site of the accident,” said Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the investigative committee of state prosecutors. “Various theories are being considered in this regard. However, there has been no confirmation of the theory of a terrorist attack,” Markin said. The rebel statement said militants had carried out the attack by placing an anti-tank grenade in the turbine hall on a timer and later detonating it. Putin, on a visit to the plant on Friday, indicated that 75 people had been killed in the accident, which officials said took place when a massive flood engulfed the main turbine hall.

“We see what has happened, we know what has happened. There’s no need to pretend that there’s something unclear about this,” Putin said, after officials announced 47 people were killed and 28 missing. “Steel can be restored but people will not be brought back. This is the biggest tragedy,” Putin said.

Nazran police: According to the latest official toll, 25 people were killed in another attack on Nazran police. Investigators did not comment on the veracity of the jihadi group’s claim.

The dam disaster came amid mounting violence in Russia’s overwhelmingly Muslim northern Caucasus region, where Islamists are waging an insurgency against the pro-Kremlin local authorities. In the latest Caucasus violence on Friday, four policemen were killed in the capital of Chechnya in a double suicide bombing carried out by attackers riding bicycles, officials said. Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov praised the slain police who he said had given up their lives to prevent even greater casualties, a news agency reported.

More recently, the group has said its commander was Chechen guerrilla leader Doku Umarov, head of the self-proclaimed ‘Caucasus Emirate’. In its statement on Friday, the group said it had decided earlier this year at a meeting of its leadership to “activate an economic war against Russia on its territory”. afp

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