Azerbaijan’s Ministry of National Security says they have killed three members of an armed group who were planning a terrorist attack during an opposition demonstration.

The three men — Bakhtiyar Alakbarov (Abdullah), Anar Masimli (Abu Yunis), and Javid Huseynli (Abu Vakkaz) — were killed in a shootout, state-run media outlet Apa quoted the ministry as saying on 25 October.

The ministry claims the group was planning a terrorist attack on 28 October, when Azerbaijani opposition group the National Council of Democratic Forces — an umbrella group of several Azerbaijani opposition groups — is due to hold an anti-government demonstration in Baku, Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti reported.

They say the ministry claimed the group was ‘subordinate to a foreign terrorist organisation of a religious extremist character’, and was ‘led by Bakhtiyar Alekberov’, who they say lived in the Lokbatan settlement of Baku’s Garadagh District.

According to Apa, all the men had ‘pledged allegiance to a terrorist groups operating abroad’ at a gathering in Alekberov’s house in Lokbatan District, where they ‘chose him as their emir (commander)’.

Caucasian Knot reported on 26 October that three men were also killed in a shootout during a special operation in the city of Khirdalan north of Baku, who were ‘preparing a terrorist attack during an opposition demonstration’.

Caucasian Knot also reported special operations in Baku’s Ismayilli District in August, which ended with an Azerbaijani citizen, ‘suspected of planning a terrorist attack’, being killed.

According to them, Azerbaijani special services also announced that they had killed five ‘religious extremists’ on 31 January.