Ingushetian Security Officer Implicated in Beslan Massacre

A former policeman was among at least 30 militants who took more than 1,300 schoolchildren, parents and teachers hostage at a school in southern Russia in September, it was reported yesterday.

Russian special forces identified Bashir Pliyev by his fingerprints from among the militants killed during the siege of the school, the daily newspaper Vremya Novosti reported, citing investigators. He was a security officer in the interior ministry of Ingushetia, the republic that borders both Chechnya and North Ossetia, where Beslan is located.

The report comes a week after three senior Ingushetian policemen were charged with criminal negligence for failing to prevent the school being seized.

Officials have claimed that corrupt police officers give militants freedom of movement around the region and permitted the Beslan massacre, in which over 330 people died.

The newspaper quoted Bislan Khamkhoyev, the Ingushetian interior minister, as saying that some months ago Mr Pliyev had driven the Chechen militant leader and self-proclaimed organiser of the Beslan siege, Shamil Basayev, and his aide, Doku Umarov, into Ingushetia, where they met an Arab militant named Abu Kuteib.

At this meeting the militants planned a raid on the Ingushetian capital Nazran in June, during which over 100 local police officers were murdered and a weapons arsenal was reportedly plundered.

Mr Khamkhoyev added that he did not agree with the investigators' conclusions reported by the newspaper and said that Mr Pliyev was on the run in Chechnya, as was the alleged leader of the militants, Ruslan Khuchbarov.

Investigators have said there may have been as many as 38 militants involved in Beslan. Only 32 bodies were recovered, and there has been speculation that several key militants escaped.

On Saturday, President Putin said the results of a two-month investigation by prosecutors into the massacre would be made public.