'Second bomber of the Moscow subway was a teacher'

Moscow, Apr 5: The second suicide bomber in the Moscow subway blasts has been identified as 28-year-old school teacher from the southern province of Dagestan, a Russian newspaper quoting the father of the bomber said on Sunday, Apr 4.

Novaya Gazeta quoted Rasul Magomedov as saying that he recognisde her daughter from the red scarf that she was wearing in the photograph, which was sent to him by his friend as that of the subway suicide bomber.

"My wife and I immediately recognised our daughter Maryam. The last time my wife saw our daughter she was wearing the same red scarf as in the photograph," the newspaper quotes him as saying.

Citing ignorance on how his daughter, Maryam Sharilova, reached Moscow on that fateful day, Magomedev said that she vanished the day before the devastating blasts on the Moscow subway on Mar 29, in which 40 people were killed.

Magomedov said that he had asked Sharilova about her marriage to an Islamic militant, after he heard about it from the security forces, but she denied it saying that she would never marry without their consent.

He said that his daughter was religious but never showed any signs of being a radical. He said that her daughter like both of them was a school teacher in their hometown of Balakhani.

"She was religious, but she never expressed any radical beliefs," Magomedov was quoted as saying.

The suicide bombers were first identified by the newspaper Kommersant on Friday, Apr 2. In the report Sharilova was identified as a 20-year-old woman from Chechnya, the widow of a slain Islamic militant.

Another suicide bomber was reported as the widow of Umalat Magomedov, Islamist militant leader who was killed in an encounter by the government forces in Dec.