A puppet police official says a Shaheed drove a car into the convoy that Ingushetia's puppet president was traveling in and blew it up, critically wounding him.
Federal investigators said a car that was parked on the side of the road detonated just as Yevkurov's armored car passed. However, Russian media, citing unnamed police officials, said a person maneuvered around a police escort car and drove his car directly into the convoy and then detonated it.
The explosion occurred around 8:30 a.m. as Yevkurov traveled outside the Ingush regional center, Nazran, said Ingush Interior Ministry spokeswoman Madin Khadziyeva.
Federal Emergency Situations Ministry officials said he was in critical condition. Yevkurov's spokesman Kaloi Akhilgov said he suffered a serious concussion and broken ribs.
Yevkurov was the third top apostate to be wounded or killed in Ingushetia in the past three weeks and the fourth in North Caucasus this month.
4 his bodyguards were killed and 5 were wounded in the blast Monday.
On June 10, Ingush fighters killed the region's deputy chief Supreme Court justice in Nazran. Three days later, the region's former deputy prime minister was gunned down as he stood outside his home in Nazran.
On June 5, the top law enforcement officer of another North Caucasus region, Dagestan, was killed by a sniper as he stood outside a restaurant where a wedding was taking place.
Yevkurov was appointed president in October after the Kremlin forced out the region's longtime leader Murat Zyazikov. A former KGB agent, Zyazikov was widely reviled by many Ingush for constant security sweeps and widespread abductions of civilians by law enforcement officers.
It should be noted that Monday was the fifth anniversary of the brazen nighttime attacks on puppet police and government in Nazran and other parts of Ingushetia. Hundreds of invaders and puppets were killed in the June 2004 attacks. The attack was planned by the Chechen commander Shamil Basayev (Shaheed, inshaAllah).
Kavkaz Center
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