KHASAVYURT, April 13 (RIA Novosti) - An associate of Russia's most wanted terrorist has been arrested in the southern region of Daghestan, local police said Thursday.

A local Interior Ministry spokesman said the militant had been involved in terrorist attacks in 1999 alongside Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for a string of bloody attacks in Russia including the Beslan school tragedy, which claimed the lives of 331 people.

The spokesman said the militant, a resident of Chechnya's south-eastern Nozhai-Yurt district, which borders on Daghestan, was detained in a joint operation by regional police and Federal Security Service (FSB) officers while trying to infiltrate Daghestan from Chechnya.

The militant led police to a hidden arms cache, including a Kalashnikov automatic rifle, bullets, and an under-barrel grenade launcher with ten rounds of ammunition, police said.

Chechnya has been ravaged by two wars between federal forces and separatists in the past decade and has remained unstable, although Moscow and pro-Kremlin local authorities have reported that life is returning to normal in the region. Militants continue to stage occasional attacks against Russian troops and Chechen law enforcement agencies.