in the campaign “"Mow Down Everything, Beat and Hang Without Mercy": Suppression of the 1877 Uprising and the Executions in Grozny (1877-1878)”
Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write about the teams of "hunters": "the militiamen had orders to kill not only abreks in hiding, but any inhabitant heading from his village into the forest. As a reward for every person killed or caught in the forest the authorities paid 25 rubles" (abrek - the empire's label for a highlander it had outlawed)[1]; separate sums were set for the leaders - "for Alibek-Haji - several thousand rubles"[1]. Captives were to be killed if an attempt was made to free them - and this was carried out: "during an attack by the insurgents on the detachment escorting 135 arrested inhabitants of the village of Mekhkety to the Vedeno fortress, the soldiers killed up to 20 Mekhkety villagers"[1].