Chechen dissident Isa Yamadayev said Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has ordered that a big mosque in Chechnya built by his family be razed to destroy any reminder of the Yamadayev brothers.
“This is a maniacal annihilation of everything that reminds people that there is someone else in the republic able to withstand [Kadyrov],” Yamadayev wrote on his blog.
Chechen mufti Sultan-Khadzhi Mirzayev confirmed Monday that the Dzhabrail-Khadzhi mosque in Gudermes would be torn down, but he said this was because it had been damaged in an October earthquake.
“The mosque’s imam and local people have repeatedly asked for the mosque to be rebuilt,” he said, RIA-Novosti reported. He said Kadyrov had now ordered that this be done.
The Yamadayev brothers, former rebel strongmen in Gudermes, had a falling out with Kadyrov. Dzhabrail Yamadayev, to whom the mosque was dedicated, was killed by a bomb in 2003. Ruslan and Sulim were shot dead in 2008 and 2009. They are survived by brothers Isa and Badrudi.
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