People arrested in Dagestan on Sunday have a link with the perpetrators of the Moscow attack

The people arrested on Sunday in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan are said to have a link with the perpetrators of the attack on a concert hall in Moscow in March. The Russian security services (FSB) reported this on Monday.

The National Anti-Terror Committee said on Sunday that three people had been arrested in the cities of Kaspisk and Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. According to the authorities, they were preparing terrorist acts, ten days after the attack in a concert hall near Moscow.

Russian security services, which provided more details on Monday, confirmed that these individuals, of different nationality, “prepared a terrorist act in public places in Kaspisk”, a city close to the capital of Dagestan where a majority of the population is Muslim.

According to the National Anti-Terror Committee, three people have been arrested, but the FSB speaks of four arrests. They also had an improvised explosive device and automatic weapons with them.

The FSB also claimed on Monday that the arrested individuals were “directly involved in the financing and provision of terrorist resources to the perpetrators of the terrorist act committed on March 22” at the Crocus City Hall.

That day, armed men invaded the large concert hall near Moscow. They shot into the crowd and set the building on fire. More than 144 people were killed and 551 others injured in the attack, which was claimed by the jihadist group IS (Islamic State). However, Russian authorities maintain that Ukraine was involved. Twelve people were arrested after the massacre, including four possible perpetrators from Tajikistan.

On Friday evening, the FSB also announced that it had arrested three “nationals of a Central Asian country” who were plotting a bomb attack in southwestern Russia.