Police have defused a bomb equivalent to 40 kg of TNT planted by militants after an attack on believers in a Dagestani mosque on the eve of the Muslim Eid ul-Fitr holiday, Dagestan’s Interior Ministry reported on Sunday.
Two masked men opened fire on believers at a Shiite mosque in the town of Khasavyurt, wounding eight people. Dagestan is a predominantly Sunni region, while many members of the local Islamic insurgency belong to the Wahhabi sect.
The assailants left unhindered after the shooting. The police found two explosive devices on the scene of the attack. One bomb went off, wounding several people, a spokesman for the local Interior Ministry said, without specifying the number of those injured in the blast.
The second bomb was defused early on Sunday.
More that a decade after the end of a federal war against separatists in Chechnya, militants continue to stage frequent attacks on security forces, police and civilians, in other regions in the area, including Dagestan.
Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of fasting of Ramadan, is celebrated between Sunday and Tuesday this year.
