In the late 1990s, the Djamaat, heavily influenced by militant Wahhabism, declared independence and ejected Dagestani officials from the area.

After a series of armed conflicts with Dagestani police and local moderate Muslims, the Djamaat broke off from government control.

Sharia law was introduced in the villages, the Russian Constitution was declared void and an alliance was signed with Chechen forces with the aim of establishing an Independent Islamic Republic in the Caucasus.

Chechnya-based militants led by warlords Shamil Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab launched an armed invasion of Dagestan in the autumn of 1999.

While the invasion was resisted by Dagestani civilians and Russian troops, a retributive military attack was launched against the Djamaat.

[1] Bagaudtin Kebedov's teachings were put into practice in an area consisting of his home town Kadar, Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi in the Buinaksk District in central Dagestan southwest of the capital Makhachkala.

[1] The majority of the villagers accepted the radical Wahhabist ideology, and young people from all over Dagestan and the Northern Caucasus arrived in the Djamaat in search of "pure Islam".

While Bagaudtin was the spiritual leader of the djamaat, in military affairs the Arab warlord Ibn al-Khattab, who had lived in Karamakhi before travelling to Chechnya and married a local woman, was the most influential person.

2 people died until the firing stopped, possibly due to a rumour that an army of Wahhabists were about to arrive from Chechnya as reinforcements.

[1] The Dagestani government responded by sending hundreds of policemen and Ministry of Interior OMON special forces troops to the region to prevent further conflict.

[1] On 5 July 1998, a congress attended by 1,000 armed militants was held in Karamakhi resulted in the Djamaat declaring independence and demands for the resignation of the Dagestani government, withdrawal of all federal troops and a union with Chechnya.

By 10 August, the militants were controlling roads and traffic through the area, threatening to separate Dagestan's capital Makhachkala from the west of the republic.

Apartment buildings near to the homes of the Dagestani Prime Minister and Mayor of the capital were bombed and demolished; however, no group claimed responsibility.

According to Basaev, these forces were "necessary for the realization of the resolutions of the congress, the main purpose of which is the creation of the Independent Islamic State in the range of Chechnya and Dagestan."

[4] A day after the blast on 5 September, Basayev and Khattab launched a second incursion into Dagestan, ostensibly with the aim of relieving the Islamic Djamaat from the government attack.

[4] According to Robert Bruce Ware, a leading specialist on Dagestan, the apartment bombings were likely perpetrated by the Dagestani Wahhabists as a retribution for the federal attack on the Islamic Djamaat.