Chechen war lords in Georgia in command of Pankisi terrorists

According to Russian law-enforcers, Chechen warlords are supervising the actions of terrorists in Russia, from the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia. To quote the information department of the Russian president, the so-called anti-criminal operation of the Georgian authorities does not prevent terrorists from plotting and committing their crimes against Russia from Georgian territory. "It is worth mentioning that terrorist leaders prefer to supervise the activities of their subordinates from a secure place, i.e. the Pankisi Gorge in this case," stressed the department.

As an evidence, the department referred to the fact that "the overall command over bandit groups, the majority of which were destroyed by the federals and the Ingush police near the Galashki settlement," was carried out by the so-called deputy of Ruslan Gelayev - an international terrorist Abdul Malik Mezhidov who was staying in the Pankisi Gorge.

According to the latest data, in Gelayev's gang, Mezhidov is in charge of financial issues and transporting militants from Georgia to Russia. The department added that terrorist Abdul Malik Mezhidov and militant Vladimir Smirnov who took the name of Abdul-Malik after getting converted into Islam, were two different persons. Smirnov's gang was 10-men strong, but some of its members were destroyed or detained during a special operation in the Shelkovskoy district of Chechnya.

Abdul-Malik Mezhidov, a Chechen from Daghestan, was in command of the Sharia guard under Aslan Maskhadov. Then he became head of the Sharia punishment department of Ichkeria, where he displayed inventive brutality and cruelty, said the department.

Mezhidov belonged to the entourage of such terrorists as Jordanian Khattab and Chechen Basayev.