Bomb Kills Muslim Leader in Russia
MAKHACHKALA, Russia — A local Muslim leader was killed in a car bombing Friday in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan, officials said.
Mufti Saidmukhammed Abubakarov, Dagestan’s respected official cleric, died along with his brother when their car was blown up by a radio-controlled bomb after prayers at the main mosque in Makhachkala, the republic’s capital. Their driver also was killed, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
No one had claimed responsibility, and police refused to comment on who may have been behind the attack. The Interfax news agency said authorities suspected involvement by Wahhabites, members of a fundamentalist Islamic sect that Abubakarov had vocally opposed.
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