Afghan vendors beaten in Volgograd marketplace, several are killed and wounded

A group of 50 young people organized act of violence at the marketplace in Volgograd.
The youngsters armored with metal sticks rushed into the stalls area, started beating salesmen and crushing the stalls. They attacked the salesmen-natives of Caucasus region and Central Asia. The victims have lived in Volgograd for several years and have been in the so-called “Afghani diaspora”.  The attack lasted for one hour, some of the attackers were wearing masks.

21-year old Tajik vendor Safar Ali Chalaev, a native of Afghanistan was killed. 20 vendors were wounded and traumatized, 8 of them were taken to hospitals. Their lives are not in danger.

The police arrested 18 attackers. They are being interrogated. Police Chief of Volgograd region  General Petr Chagupa reported that the arrested men did not belong to skinheads or some other radical group of youngsters.

The main version of the incident is about the “clash around the property ownership”. Some of the arrested are allegedly the criminal gang members.

Both the police and Afghanis believe that the attack “was prepared in advance”. Leader of Afghani diaspora Bahavi Nizamutdinov said that the diaspora vendors repeatedly received threats from a criminal gang during the several years of their work in the marketplace.