Akhmed Tagayev, a deputy chief mufti in Dagestan, was shot and killed by gunmen Monday in Makhachkala, capital of the mainly Muslim republic, Dagestani Interior Ministry spokesman Shamil Guseinov said.
Tagayev had publicly condemned followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi form of Islam. Islamic militants in Dagestan have staged regular attacks on police and authorities.
Also Monday, four police officers from Chechnya were killed when they stepped on a rebel-planted land mine during a security sweep in the Sunzha region of Ingushetia, a province west of Chechnya, the Interior Ministry said.
Police and special forces from Chechnya and Ingushetia had been jointly trying to track down a group of militants near the forested border between the two provinces.
The Kremlin last month formally ended a federal counterterrorism operation in Chechnya, which has seen two bloody wars in the past 15 years. But insurgents continue to stage sporadic attacks on troops and authorities there.
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