MOSCOW: One policeman was killed and another injured when a car exploded at a checkpoint in Russia’s volatile region of Dagestan on Wednesday, local police said, hours after another officer died in a bombing claimed by the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

“As police were trying to stop a car, the driver drove past and the car exploded,” local police spokeswoman Fatina Ubaydatova said. “As a result one policeman was killed and one was injured, according to preliminary information.” Ubaydatova said the identity and fate of the people in the vehicle remained unknown. An unnamed source in law enforcement told RIA Novosti state news agency that a brief car chase ensued after the vehicle failed to stop at the checkpoint and that its occupants hurled an explosive device at the police car.

The incident came hours after a police officer was killed and two were injured when explosive devices were detonated on a main road near Dagestan’s city of Kaspiysk late on Tuesday as two police vehicles passed.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2016