Police fired shots in the air Saturday to disperse hundreds of people who took to the streets in Ingushetia to protest against the government of the restive south Russian province, witnesses said.
An AFP reporter on the scene said around 500 people had massed near the bus station in the province's main city of Nazran after they were prevented from gathering outside the local government headquarters. "They are killing us, they are kidnapping, we want justice," shouted protesters angered by reports of abuses by the regional administration.
"Soldiers told everyone to leave the area and at the same time fired shots into the air," a local resident who saw the firing told AFP. Accounts published on an Ingushetia website also said security forces had fired into the air.
AFP saw demonstrators throwing rocks and bottles at security forces outside the bus station, and the website Ingushetia.ru reported that several of the demonstrators had been hurt.
Security forces arrested a number of men present at the demonstration, called to protest against the leader of the province, Murat Zyazikov, and to unexplained kidnappings, police violence and poor economic conditions.
Echo of Moscow radio station reported that around 100 people had been arrested. "Down with Zyazikov, Down with United Russia!" the crowd chanted, referring to Russia's party of power.
Tensions have been rising for months in Ingushetia, a tiny Muslim province in Russia's Caucasus mountains, following a spate of unsolved kidnappings, murder and torture. Critics say dozens have become victims of a dirty war waged by the secret services and military against insurgents based in the mountains.
Amid roadside bombings and small arms ambushes Ingushetia has become as dangerous for Russian servicemen as neighbouring Chechnya. Although the Ingush share close ethnic links with the Chechens, and also share the Sufi Muslim religion, they have never joined Chechnya's independence movement and were largely spared two devastating wars conducted in Chechnya by Russia's armed forces.