Shamil Basayev's father was killed in ChechnyaRuslan Isayev, North Caucasus - The father of famous Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev, Salman, was killed on January 12 on the border between the Kurchaloy and the Nozhay-Yurt districts.
65-year-old Salman Basayev went home from Kurchaloy to his native village Dyshni-Vedeno together with two teenagers, sons of his friend. On the way, nearby the Akhkinchu Barzoy village, they were ambused by a unit of Russian special forces.
Nobody knows what happened after that. But Salman Basayev´s relatives say he would take a grenade with himself and stress he would not surrender to Russians without a fight.
During the first war Russian soldiers blew up Basayev´s house in Dyshni-Vedeno. Then, between the wars, Salman built a new one, which was destroyed later, too. Since that time Salman Basayev lived by his relatives, hiding himself from Russian soldiers.
At the beginning of the second Chechen campaign, Salman Basayev lost his 16-year-old son. He was poisoned by food and Salman Basayev claimed that he knew who had poisoned his son. Salman's second son, Shirvani, was killed, too. He died in his car that was shelled by Russian soldiers. Later on, however, Russian military claimed that they had no proper evidence of Shirvani´s death. On the other hand, nobody has ever heard on Sirvani since that.
Lately, it has also been said that even the third son, Shamil, was killed but the rumour has not been confirmed. Salman Basayev would rarely meet with Shamil, his relatives say. However, he fully supported all Shamil´s activities. In the last two months Salman Basayev lived by his friend in the Kurchaloy district. When "mopping-up operations" began there, he decided to move to his native village Dyshni-Vedeno, which became fateful for him. |
