We took a guided tour through a house in Nardaran that caught gunfire on November 26, when a police raid during a prayer meeting resulted in the deaths of five local citizens and two police officers.
The house bore scars of violence, with bullet-pocked walls and ubiquitous blood stains. Veiled women took us inside a home that showed signs of indiscriminate gunfire. Even a bag of onions was torn through with a live bullet, our hostess said pointing to the bag. “There was a rain of bullets flying from all directions, from the walls, the ceiling,” she recalled.
“There is blood everywhere,” the woman said.
“We swear to God we are neither ISIS nor Wahhabis,” one of the women said. “I swear on the Quran we are Shiites. We are not Wahhabis.”
One woman, whose husband was detained and held incommunicado, said that police were on the hunt for theologian and religious activist
Haji Taleh Bahirzade
.
Authorities claim the raid broke up a “criminal gang” called Muslim Unity seeking to impose Sharia law in Azerbaijan, but witnesses and local residents insist the police attacked a peaceful prayer meeting. “They were simply praying, worshiping God. They didn’t hurt anyone,” a local told Meydan TV.
