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FBI Probes Tsarnaev's Contacts in Chechen Community

FBI investigators have searched the home of a former Chechen separatist in Manchester, New Hampshire, after establishing that a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing met with him weeks before the terrorist attack that killed three and wounded 260 people last month.

Manchester police confirmed to Voice of America that Musa Khadzhimuradov's home had been searched and that FBI agents were studying the content of hard drives on his computers.

Khadzhimuradov said secret service agents visited his home on Tuesday with a search warrant and took him to a local FBI office, where he gave samples of his DNA as well as fingerprints, RIA Novosti reported.

According to the FBI, bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev bought fireworks, which he allegedly used to make explosive devices for the bombing, in the town of Seabrook, which is located an hour's drive from Manchester.

Tsarnaev also used to visit a shooting club in Manchester several blocks from Khadzhimuradov's home, where he bought weapons and ammunition, the FBI said.

Khadzhimuradov told U.S. investigators that he first met Tsarnaev in 2006 at an annual meeting of Boston's Chechen community and that he had been in contact with him ever since.

Khadzhimuradov came to the U.S. in 2004 as a refugee. His lower body is paralyzed as a result of an injury received in Chechnya in 2001, where he was a personal bodyguard of separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev, currently living in exile in London.

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