NAZRAN, Russia -- A great-grandson of revered historic Islamic leader Sheikh Batal-haji Belkharoyev has been killed after his car was sprayed by gunfire in Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia, local law enforcement authorities say.
The car of Ibragim Belkharoyev, who had survived two assassination attempts in the past, came under fire shortly after midnight on December 31 in Ingushetia's largest city, Nazran, the local branch of Russia's Investigative Committee said. Belkhareyov's driver was wounded in the attack.
The local Ingushetian branch of the Investigative Committee has opened a probe into the killing, Interfax reported.
Belkharoyev was a religious activist who never graduated from a religious school. He survived two assassination attempts in 2008 and 2016.
His great-grandfather, Batal-haji Belkharoyev, founded one of the Sufi Islamic teachings in the beginning of the 20th century and is held in high regard in Ingushetia and other parts of the North Caucasus.
Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, has been rejected as heretical by Islamic extremists, who hold a fundamentalist view of the religion.