command to abandon it. Having abandoned his official post of the Chechen security minister after he had fled from besieged Chechen capital in late January 1995, Geliskhanov engaged in negotiations regarding his surrender, but demanded guarantees of safety. On March 14, 1995, however, the acting Russian federal prosecutor of the Chechen Republic Baskhanov signed an order to initiate criminal proceedings against him along with Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Shamil Basayev and other Chechen leaders. Geliskhanov then became a guerrilla leader, gaining reputation as one of the top separatist field commanders. According to Human Rights Watch, Ishkoy-Yurt, a village located directly across the border with Dagestan, was reportedly "marked for special retribution" by Russian troops on April 20 because it was the home of Geliskhanov, "a leading Dudayev loyalist". In April–May there were false rumours that he has been "liquidated" by a covert FSK assassination squad. In 1995, along with Raduyev, Geliskhanov commanded an attack on a convoy of the Russian Interior Ministry, and on December 14 the pair led a large-scale guerrilla raid on Gudermes, seizing much of the city for three days. He also participated in negotiations with federal representatives during the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in the role of neutral mediator. After the war After the end of the first war, and following Aslan Maskhadov's election as President of Ichkeria in January 1997, Geliskhanov again joined up with Raduyev, an opponent of Maskhadov who has raised an unruly 1,000-strong militia known as General Dudayev's Army, based in downtown Grozny and partially controlling the Gudermessky District of eastern Chechnya. Geliskhanov's Squad, his group of about 100 armed men, was based in the remote Nozhay-Yurtovsky District to the south of Gudermessky. Second war with Russia When the Second Chechen War began in 1999, his men reportedly dispersed and there were reports that he had died. In April 2002, pro-Moscow President of the Chechen Republic Akhmad Kadyrov claimed that Geliskhanov and more than 100 of his fighters planned to give up soon, but this did not take place. Surrender On March 28–29, 2006, regnum.ru and kavkaz.memo.ru reported that Sultan Geliskhanov and his brother Turpal voluntarily surrendered in Gudermes to the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities. According to kavkaz.memo.ru, which quoted an unnamed Chechen law-enforcement official as saying Geliskhanov has been interrogated and released, and the only outstanding charge against Geliskhanov was "participation in an illegal armed formation", qualifying him for an amnesty. Chechen separatists called