The body of Ashurulav Kurbanov was found near the mosque in the village of Mikheyevka in the northern part of the province, Interfax and state-run RIA reported.

Mainstream Muslim leaders are frequent targets of militants in Dagestan, a center of the Islamist insurgency that persists on Russia’s southern rim a decade after federal forces drove separatists from power in the neighboring province of Chechnya.

The head of an Islamic theology institute was shot dead in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) south of Moscow, earlier this month.