Masked men have torched the offices of a prominent human rights organisation in Ingushetia in southern Russia, days after the head of its operations in neighbouring Chechnya was arrested on hotly disputed drug charges.

Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights group, published photographs of its charred offices in Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia, a republic in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region.

The human rights group said that according to CCTV footage the attack happened early on Wednesday morning and was carried out by two masked men carrying petrol cans who climbed into a second floor window. The offices were empty at the time.

“Memorial considers this to be a terrorist act,” the organisation said in a statement. “There is clearly a link between this arson attack and those forces that are trying to destroy Memorial’s work in Chechnya and force Memorial out of the entire North Caucasus region.”

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