Russia’s Volgograd region has been the scene of a deadly confrontation between ISIS attackers and Russian special forces at the IK-19 Surovikino prison. All four assailants were killed at the end of this siege while sufficing in saving the kidnapped victims.
The prisoners, armed with knives, claimed to be acting on behalf of ISIS and held some hostages within a section of the jail as their territory for a while.
During a normal disciplinary commission meeting that took an unexpected turn things turned ugly. Four convicts identified as Ramzidin Toshev (28), Rustamchon Navruzi (23), Nazirchon Toshov (28) and Temur Khusinov (29) from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan started attacking people with knives leaving many guards injured. They further took eight employees of the institution captive together with four other inmates.
There were photos on social media showing one of them stabbing a bleeding security officer. Another video showed them at the prison yard with one hostage having his face covered in blood. The assailants also released videos professing loyalty to ISIS and claiming responsibility for the attack as retribution against Muslims’ persecution.
The members of Russian special forces arrived at Surovikino prison which is about 850 kilometers south of Moscow equipped with heavily armored soldiers and professional shooters from Rosgvardia National Guard.
After several hours of negotiations and planning, it was decided that special forces should storm into the premises. Snipers killed all four terrorists ending this standoff. In fact, four employees from prisons died during this incident whereby three lost their lives immediately. While another succumbed to injuries in hospitalization after being attacked by these offenders for some time now. However, some warders and detainees also suffered various degrees injury especially serious ones.
“However, snipers with accuracy delivered four precise shots against guards taken hostage by prisoners. Thus they were neutralized due to efficiency nature…” quoted RIA state news agency, referring to the national guard.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed of the situation during a virtual meeting with security leaders after the standoff in Volgograd. It was then realized that there is no imminent danger against civilian population.
Andrei Bocharov stressed the need to enforce the law while speaking about this case in an interview, “All our residents should respect and follow Russian laws. We will not allow anyone who tries to inflame ethnic hatred.”
This has been the second such incident in recent times. A prison also experienced similar hostage taking when inmates linked with ISIS attempted a mutiny. In this case, five prisoners were killed while one was taken captive (Barberousse et al., 2016).
