MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) - Ingush Police believe that one of their own, killed in a special operation in the North Caucasus, was actually a close associate of Russia's most wanted man Shamil Basayev.
"We have established that when the Basayev gang attacked Ingushetia [early on June 22, 2004], Pliyev personally drove Basayev around town and helped militants commit their crimes," the police said. "When the police entered the yard of the private house where Pliyev was hiding, he put up armed resistance," the police said.
Pliyev was killed in a special operation on the outskirts of Nazran, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic Ingushetia bordering on Chechnya. Two Nazran policemen were injured in the fire exchange.
Last June, 79 people died and 104 were wounded during militant attacks on Ingushetia.
