The 83 year old leader of the sect, Fayzrahman Satarov. Watch the report below.
The background
An Islamist sect, the Fayzarahmanists, has been found living in an underground bunker near the city of Kazan, in Tatarstan, in Russia, reported The Guardian; it’s 497 miles east of Moscow. About 70 members, including 20 children, were thought to have lived underground for almost ten years. Some children had even been born underground. The group is named after Fayzrahman Satarov, its 83 year old founder, who declared himself to be a prophet who was destined to control a caliphate, and that his house was an independent Islamic state. Satarov’s followers were banned from leaving their underground bunker. Authorities, reported CNN, say that many of the followers had never seen the sun.
The bunker had multiple levels built below ground; its cells had no light, heat or ventilation. Satarov is facing charges.
“This could just be some 83-year-old who wants to control people. This may have nothing at all to do with radical or extreme Islam as we understand it. This man – creating a caliphate? How is he going to do that? This just doesn’t seem like the modis [sic] operandi of a serious radical cell bent on challenging the government,” said Shireen T Hunter, a scholar on Islam and Russia, quoted on CNN.
Herodotus describes the Armenians living underground: but has anyone else successfully managed it?
The Mole People of New York
A controversial book by Jennifer Toth, called The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City claimed that there was an ordered society of homeless people inhabiting the sewers; however her book was widely derided for its inaccuracies.
Las Vegas credit hustlers in underground tunnels
The Sun, on the other hand, reports that underneath Las Vegas there is a thriving community of people who inhabit the underground tunnels. They have camps with furniture, and make money by credit hustling.
Paupers in Beijing forced to live underground
According to Impactlab, as many as a million people live underground in Beijing, renting tiny, windowless rooms for £30 a month. There are 30 square miles of tunnels and basements, inhabited by people who simply cannot afford to live above ground.
Josef Fritzl’s daughter locked in cellar
More horrifically, there have been several documented cases of people keeping prisoners in their own houses, in cellars or basements. There was Josef Fritzl, who fathered seven children on his own daughter, and kept them locked up underground for 24 years.
Eccentric Duke lived underground
On a more lighthearted note, the 5th Duke of Portland created a series of underground passages at Welbeck Abbey. He wished to live in seclusion, and had all the rooms stripped of furniture and painted pink, with only a commode in the corner of each one. He lived in the chambers underground, which included a ballroom and a picture gallery. He insisted on eating chicken, and had his food brought to him on heated trucks that ran on rails.
