| Police in Dagestan have averted a major terrorist act against the servicemen of the Armed Forces, Colonel Abdulmanap Musayev, chief press officer of the Dagestani Interior Minister said Wednesday. Police officers from the town of Buinaksk found a homemade explosive device ready for action on the highway linking Buinaksk with the republican capital Makhachkala. They found a metal box 70 by 30 by 40 centimeters in size hanging on the foothold of a road sign, Col Musayev said. It contained 34 TNT cartridges weighing 200 grams each, two TNT cartridges weighing 400 grams, a kilogram of ammonium nitrate, and a 120 mm artillery shell augmented with plastid. The set also contained metallic pieces to intensify the incapacitating effects and was connected to four electric detonators. District Prosecutor’s Office in Buinaksk has instituted a criminal case invoking the clauses of the Russian Criminal Code on perpetrating a crime and terrorism. Police and prosecution officials have no doubts that federal troops were chosen a target of the abortive terrorist act, since columns of the troops move along that section of the road several times during the day. |