Nardaran residents report mass detentions

According to local residents, arrests in the Azerbaijani village of Nardaran near Baku were undertaken after religious graffiti appeared in the village. In total, 32 persons were detained. The police refute the information about arrests.

Locals say that the operation was carried out on March 1. The above 32 persons were detained and taken to the police department of the Sabunchu District of Baku. 24 of them were released after questioning. The remaining eight received 20 days of administrative arrest from the Sabunchu District Court.

"Nardaran residents assert that these graffiti are a provocation against villagers: they were not done by Nardaran residents," the "Trend" Agency has reported today.

Ekhsan Zakhidov, the deputy head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), has stated that in recent days no large-scale operations were conducted in Nardaran.

"Like in other regions of the country, everything is in order there; the police are in full control of the criminal situation in the village. Just 7 people were summoned for continued investigative-operative actions under the criminal case in connection with the Nardaran events," the APA news agency quotes Zakhidov as saying today.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 26, the unrest in Nardaran was provoked by a special operation, during which law enforcers detained 14 people, including Talekh Bagirzade, the leader of the "Muslim Unity" movement. As a result of the clashes between the local residents and the police, seven persons were killed.

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