MOSCOW, December 12 - RAPSI. The organizers of the assassination of religious leader sheikh Said Afandi, which also claimed the lives of six others, have been detained, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee reported on Tuesday.

During a special operation held by the Federal Security Service (FSB) at the Investigative Committee's request, on December 8, three members of a criminal gang Shikhmirza Labazanov, born in 1982, Magomedali Amirkhanov, 1976, and Magomed Gadzhiyev, 1989, were detained in Dagestan and have pleaded guilty to the assassination attempt, according to the statement issued by the National Anti-Terrorism Committee.

As previously reported, the cleric and six of his followers were killed by a bomb detonated by a female suicide bomber in the Buinak Region village of Chirkey.

The bomber posed as a religious devotee and came into Afandi's house wearing an explosive bomb belt.

Investigators have indentified her as Aminat Kurbanova (Saprykina), a resident of Makhachkala born in 1982.

Sheikh Said Afandi was a well known spiritual leader to thousands of people. He was a teacher and respected community figure, also renowned as a Sufi scholar and author of religious books.