More than 1,000 Daghestanis are fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State, Daghestan’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Abdurashid Magomedov, has declared.

According to Caucasian Knot, the minister announced the figure at a local police forum.

‘Unfortunately, Daghestan has become infamous in recent years. Although over the past 3–4 years the situation has improved significantly, the problem remains… More than 1,200 people, our fellow countrymen are fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State. We weren’t able to resolve this issue, and we let them leave, as the saying goes, to someone else’s war’, Magomedov said.

According to the minister, the problem hasn’t been adequately addressed on a municipal level anywhere in Daghestan.

At the end of 2015, Abdurashid Magomedov declared that about 900 Daghestanis were participating in the war in Syria.