CHERKESSK (Russia), Aug 7: A high-profile imam in southern Russia was killed during evening prayers, authorities said on Monday. Authorities said they suspected fundamentalist Muslim groups were involved the killing Friday of Adulkerim Hadzhi-Bayramukov in the city of Karachevsk.

The city prosecutor said he suspected young radicals were behind the shooting, alleging imam’s work as a healer offended them.

“They insist that old imams stop healing. They say it’s heathenism and a terrible sin in Islam,” prosecutor Askhat Teunayev said. Karachevsk is in the republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessiya, which like other southern Russian republics has seen a rise in radical Islam in recent years.

The republic has been plagued by violence, some linked to criminal clans and some seen as a spillover of insurgent sentiment from nearby Chechnya.

Healing is popular among older Muslim leaders in the North Caucasus, who sell hand-made amulets that are supposed to bring success to the buyer and misfortune to the buyer’s enemies.

But younger Muslims are unhappy with their elders’ profiting off of their position.

“He had an awful reputation _ the imam professionally wrought harm,” said Amir Tokov, 29, who lives in Karacheyevo-Cherkessiya. “The imam was killed for his involvement in healing.”

According to local news reports, healers have been shot in six towns across Karacheyevo-Cherkessiya this year.

KIDNAP: In Dagestan, which neighbours Chechnya to the east, masked men kidnapped an Estonian citizen. Interior ministry spokeswoman Angela Martirosova said the citizen _ a teenager of Dagestani background who was a student at Tallinn Technical University — _was abducted on Aug 3 in what may have been a pre-nuptial courtship ritual still practised in some parts of the Caucasus region.