MOSCOW  The police in Moscow are investigating the ghastly murder of a Central Asian migrant worker, who was stabbed several times and decapitated in an apparent attack by ultranationalists.

The severed head of the victim, a citizen of Tajikistan, was discovered in a dumpster on Wednesday wrapped in a plastic bag, the press service for the investigative wing of the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

Investigators say the victim and another Tajik migrant worker were attacked last Saturday after they left work at a food warehouse just south of Moscow. The newspaper Kommersant cited unnamed police sources, who said the murder victim was Salekh Azizov, 20, from the city of Vidnoe, also south of Moscow. The second Tajik worker was able to escape, but was hospitalized with injuries, according to the investigators.

An obscure group calling itself the Militant Organization of Russian Nationalists announced it was responsible for the killing in an email sent to two human rights organizations that monitor hate crimes in Russia. The email also included a photo of the victim’s decapitated head.