08.08 Russian Police Probe Death Threat Against Muslim Cleric
MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) Police in Russias North Caucasus are investigating a death threat against a senior Muslim cleric, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
On Wednesday the mufti of the Stavropol Region told police he had received a letter containing a death threat.
The ministry said a criminal investigation had been opened, but did not provide any other details.
Attacks on senior Muslim clerics have become increasingly frequent in Russias republics in recent years, especially in the volatile North Caucasus.
In late December, North Ossetias deputy mufti Ibragim Dudarov was murdered in the republics capital of Vladikavkaz. Last August, Muslim cleric and prominent Sufi sheikh Said Atsayev, 74, was killed in a suicide bombing in the turbulent North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Last July, the head mufti in Russias republic of Tatarstan, Ildus Faizov, was injured in a car bomb attack, hours after his former deputy was shot dead.
