Reporter shot dead in Russia's restive Dagestan province (Roundup)

Sep 3, 2008, 13:57 GMT

Moscow - A reporter critical of Islam was shot and mortally wounded in Russia's restive Dagestan province, the Interfax new agency reported Wednesday.

An unknown person or persons fired at least two bullets into Abdullah Alishaev, a local television journalist, as he was driving through the Dagestan provincial capital Makhachkala Tuesday evening.

The bullets struck him in the head and shoulder. Doctors at the city hospital treated the injuries, but Alishaev died from his wounds.

Alishaev, sometimes going by the name Telman Alishaev, was a well- known media personality in Dagestan for his appearances as moderator of the TV-Chirkey and World to Your Home television shows, Ekho Moskvy television reported.

Both programmes aired on Russian state-controlled television. Alishaev had been a long-time and outspoken opponent of Islamic religious fundamentalism, known in the region as 'Wahabbism.'

Police were searching for perpetrators, and suspected the killers had attacked Alishaev 'on political grounds.'

The murder came on the heels of the Sunday killing of Magomed Yevloyev, an independent news website owner in the neighbouring Russian province Ingushetia.

Russian law enforcers had arrested Yevloyev and were taking him to a station in the Ingushetia capital Nazran for questioning when a police officer shot Yevloyev in the temple.

Russian police spokesmen said their initial investigations seemed to show Yevloyev's death was an accident. International media protection groups were quick to accuse the Nazran police of killing Yevloyev intentionally.

Yevloyev's website had made public information critical of the Russian government, especially of its tight military control of the neighbouring province Chechnya.

Journalism in the Caucasus region is a particularly dangerous profession, with four reporters dying and more than a dozen injured during August's Russo-Georgian war over South Ossetia.

Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya, an award-winning journalist for years critical of the Kremlin's virtual occupation of Chechnya, was shot in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.

Her death remains unsolved. Russian officials and media rights activists alike have said a Chechen death squad was most likely responsible for Politkovskaya's death.

Russian officials have suggested her killing was linked to organized crime, while media rights activists have argued it was pro- Russian Chechens retaliating for Politkovskaya's anti-Russia reporting.