MAKHACHKALA, March 9 (RIA Novosti) - A federal judge was shot dead in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said.

The judge, only identified by his family name Radzhabov, was attacked on Saturday evening near his home in the city of Izberbash on the coast of the Caspian Sea.

He sustained several gunshot wounds and died on the spot.

Earlier in the day two gunmen were shot dead when a group of unidentified attackers opened fire on police in the village of Mutsaul, in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district. There were no casualties among police or civilians, the Interior Ministry said.

The Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to the republic of Chechnya, has spread across the North Caucasus in recent years. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are reported regularly in the neighboring republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

Over a decade after the war against Islamist separatists in Chechnya ended, Russian security forces continue to fight militants in the volatile region.