Chechnya: 13-year-old Caught Red-Handed In Terror Act

A boy of 13 was caught red-handed in a terror act in Chechnya's Urus Martan district centre. Khamza Alkhanov of a local secondary school was installing a powerful radio-controlled explosive device of three artillery cartridges and a mine in a district centre street where he lived, when a team of the district Security Service board, the police and the military commandant's men seized him. The boy was to blow up the device with a radio transmitter he had received from paramilitaries. The blast would be strong enough to destroy a greater part of the street and kill the young terrorist and a great many of his neighbours. The rebels had paid the boy 200 roubles (US$7) and given him a radioset to listen to pop tunes he loved.