Russia town shaken by police raid

Bashkortostan is a Muslim region located in the heart of Russia

Russian authorities have launched an inquiry into a police operation, during which hundreds of young men were allegedly detained and beaten.

The "preventive" operation in Blagoveshchensk took place on 10 December, but details are only just starting to emerge.

The authorities are playing down the scale of the alleged abuses.

But human rights activists say riot police swarmed the town and began arresting men aged between 15 and 30.

More than 1,000 men, in a town with a population of 30,000, were reportedly taken to police stations, where many were beaten and humiliated.

Police spokesmen say the number of detained in what they describe as a "crime prevention operation" was "only 381".

'Mopping-up'

The events prompted the Bashkortostan autonomy, where the town is located, to set up a public human rights council.

Similar operations are reported to have taken place in at least one adjacent village where police arrested all the men present at a local disco.

Local hospitals are said to have dealt with hundreds of people with various injuries after the Blahoveshchensk incident.

The authorities say 35 people have officially complained against the way they were treated by the police.

Police said the clampdown, which Russian observers now compare to the infamous "mopping-up" operations in Chechnya, was prompted by an incident when police officers were allegedly beaten by local businessmen.

The businessmen told the Izvestia newspaper they were beaten by the police.

Rights record

On Tuesday, the Bashkir prosecutor's office launched an investigation into the conduct of the police operation.

On the same day, the newly-created public council for human rights held its first session in the Bashkir capital, Ufa, to discuss the Blagoveshchensk events.

But although the council included human rights activists, Russian newspapers note that a Bashkir deputy interior minister was appointed its head.

Bashkortostan, a predominantly Muslim autonomy in the Volga-Urals region of Russia, has a poor human rights record, even by Russian standards.

But police abuses are widespread across the country. Human Rights Watch reported last year on the "massive and systematic" use of torture by police in Russia.

Travel guides warn tourists travelling to Russia that they are more likely to get mugged or beaten by policemen than by ordinary criminals.