The imam of Nazran mosque in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia has been severely injured in a car bomb explosion, a local investigative committee spokesman said on Tuesday.
"At about 08:40 Moscow time [04:40 GMT] in the district of the so-called Ekazhevsky circle, an identified assailant blew up the car in which the imam of the Nasyr-Kortskaya mosque, Khamzat Chumakov, was driving," the spokesman said.
He said the explosion could have been caused by an explosive device attached to the bottom of the car.
Attacks on religious leaders are common in Russia's unstable, mainly Muslim republic of Ingushetia.
In November 2009, Imam Kosum Meyriev survived an assassination attempt, while another imam in Nazran discovered explosives equivalent of 400-grams of TNT under his car in August, but was not harmed.
Since the beginning of the year, 489 terrorism-related crimes have been registered in the North Caucasus Federal District, which includes the volatile republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said on Monday .
ROSTOV-ON-DON, September 14 (RIA Novosti)
