Moscow: Police defused a large bomb in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan on the same day that suicide bombers killed 12 people in the region, Russian news agencies reported on Friday, citing security forces.
Police found the "powerful bomb" on Wednesday evening in a cemetery in the Kizlyar district of Dagestan, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, adding that the bomb hidden inside a metal bucket was packed with metal nuts and bolts.
In a deadly blast earlier Wednesday in Kizlyar, a car driven by a suicide bomber blew up when police tried to stop it for a regular check.
Minutes later, a suicide bomber in police uniform approached police working at the scene and triggered a second explosion.
The two blasts killed 12 people including nine police, one of whom was a local police chief.
The Dagestan blasts came two days after Monday`s double suicide bombings in the Moscow metro killed 39 people.
Underlining the instability, two people were killed in the Khasavurtsky district of Dagestan overnight Wednesday to Thursday when their car packed with explosives blew up.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev flew to Dagestan yesterday for a surprise visit in which he met regional officials and police and urged tough anti-terror measures.
Russia has for years battled Islamist insurgents in the North Caucasus Muslim regions of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia but Monday`s attacks were the first time in six years that such violence has spread to the capital.
PTI
