It was on the evening of the 12th of December, in Blagoveshchensk, a city of 40,000 people, that the City's police in cooperation with the Bashkir repubilc's special "OMON" forces began their "mop up operation". More than 700 policemen on the town streets- picking out anyone and everyone they came across. People were taken right off the streets, from shops and cafes. They battered their way into flats and dragged people out- not giving them time to dress. Ildar Isyagulov of the Blagoveshchensk/ Bashkir organisation "For Human Rights" told a Novaya Gazeta reporter: people were detained without any explanation. Among those detained- children, who were being held together with the adults. More than 1000 people were detained in total. Most of them were men aged between 10 and 30. Many were released the next day. 47 people were admitted to casualty departments of local hospitals in critical conditions. Many had concussion, fractures, broken arms and legs, trauma to the skull. A local newspaper "panorama" wrote that the operation was carried out under the orders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bashkiria "with the aim of enforcnig order in the city" As the same newspaper writes- as a result of the operation there were more than 300 breaches of the law. Unofficially, sources claim the unprecedented roundups were a result of a drunken fight between officers of the law enforcement agencies and local teenagers. One policeman was seriously beaten in this fight. The teenagers were identified as being part of a criminal group and special OMON forces from Ufa were called in to deal with them. At present the police in Blagoveshchensk are assiduously trying to cover up all traces of their "mop up operation". Entranceways to many of the multistory appartment blocks are being cleaned of blood, and town residents are being reccommended not to write letters to the Prosecutor General of the Supreme Court of Russia. The authorites are attempting to negotiate with affected residents. The government of the republic as yet has said nothing about this, although the Bashkir Parliament has commented. Deputies at the State Soviet of the Bashkir Republic have asked President Putin and Nurgaliev, minister of Internal Affairs of Russia, to "defend the Bashkir Ministry of Internal Affairs from unwarranted criticism and enable the creation of a positive imaeg of the police in the eyes of the population."