Experts fail to confirm Nustafaev's oath to IS

Abdula Nustafaev, killed in Gimry, had not sworn to "Islamic State" (IS); and his death is a blow to already weak "Imarat Kavkaz", said journalist Orhan Jemal; and Professor Mikhail Roschin believes that power agents use allegations of Nustafaev's involvement in the IS to exaggerate their achievements.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 24, in the course of a counterterrorist operation (CTO) conducted in the village of Gimry, Untsukul District of Dagestan, an alleged member of the armed underground was killed. He was identified as the 36-year-old local resident Abdula Nustafaev (Nustapaev). The Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) states that Nustafaev had sworn to the IS, which is prohibited in Russia and recognized as a terrorist organization.

The data on Nustafaev's oath to the IS are unreliable, says Orhan Jemal, a journalist of the Forbes. According to his version, the "Gimry" grouping of militants, being "patrimony" of Magomed Suleimanov, the head of "Imarat Kavkaz", who was killed this August, has maintained his line to oppose the IS.

The journalist does not rule out that the NAC made its statement "in the conjunctural way"; and Nustafaev has nothing to do with the IS.

By allegations of Nustafaev's involvement in the IS, the NAC is exaggerating its achievements, believes Professor Mikhail Roschin, a senior researcher at the Centre for Studying Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Volga-Ural of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

"Since the IS is the most dangerous and the most 'promoted' organization today, then, by referring Nustafaev to it, it's easy, roughly speaking, to justify his liquidation. There's no information that the 'Gimry' gang had sworn to the IS," said Roschin.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.