A Kosovo Police patrol has come under fire last night in the north of Kosovo, Koha reports quoting Serbian-language media outlet, KoSSEV. The incident is reported to have taken place at around 10 p.m. in the village of Banje, Zubin Potok municipality. The Kosovo Police vehicle was damaged in the attack but no one was injured. Koha recalls that a Kosovo Police vehicle came under fire in the same village back in 2014 when three police officers from the Serb community were wounded.

The Special Prosecution asked police to interview people in Pristina who made allegations that Kosovo’s new Serb agriculture minister Nenad Rikalo tortured Albanians during the war - a claim he denies.

The head of the Kosovo Special Prosecution, Reshat Millaku, told BIRN on Wednesday that police have interviewed several people who alleged that Nenad Rikalo, Kosovo’s new agriculture minister, was allegedly involved in the torture of Albanians during the 1990s war.

Serbian Government Office for Kosovo in the strongest terms protested over the arrest of Red Cross officials and raid by the police into their premises, warning that “misuse of humanitarian issues for political purposes brings no good to anyone”.

The Office’s press statement further reads it is important to lower the tension in Kosovo, adding that “this shameful action is a part of clashes of the old and new political structures in Pristina and internal Albanian conflict, which is a consequence of a transition of authority in the provisional institutions of the self-governance”.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, said that the arrest of Bogdan Mitrovic by the Kosovo police in Suva Reka is beyond any doubt a policy of intimidation, Serbian media reported.

Vucic also said this arrest is a message to Serbs that they should not try to visit their homes, let alone to come and live there.

He also assessed Mitrovic’s arrest as brutal arrest before cameras, “as if they were arresting Ramush Haradinaj or his brother Daut”.

The defence lawyer of the arrested Bogdan Mitrovic, Dejan A. Vasic said to RTV KIM, that the first neighbour of Bogdan Mitrovic from the village of Sopina, who usurped his property, reported Mitrovic to the police.

Vasic, further said that this arrest is “a classic pattern of intimidation of returnees and usurpation of their properties.”

He also said that arrested Mitrovice is a representative of the village, and took part in all negotiations related to return, as one of the most respected inhabitants from the village.

The arrest of people on the basis of some secret lists is just an excuse for continuing the policy of ethnic cleansing of the Serb people from Kosovo, says Marko Đurić, Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, reacting on today's arrest of IDP near Suharekë/Suva Reka.

"Today, police in Mušutište, near Suva Reka, became an open instrument in the chauvinist policy of preventing the return of displaced Serbs," Đurić said, reports RTS.

Bogdan Mitrović (74) from Sopina was arrested in Suharekë / Suva Reka by being taken out of a group of displaced Serbs who visited their houses and the Holy Virgin's Church in Mušutište, reports Kontakt plus radio.

Special forces of the Kosovo police searched the bus that brought them, and arrested Mitrović. Mitrović was charged of serious crimes and war crimes. The police took him to Prizren, reports the radio.

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The three journalists of the Russian nationality, the Kosovo police arrested in Partes yesterday, were released from the custody in the afternoon and no criminal proceedings were initiated against them, the Serbian local TV station RTV Puls reported this morning.

“Foreign citizens brought in yesterday, were released around 17.00 hrs from the police station in Gnjilan. No criminal proceedings were initiated against them,” said the Deputy Commander of the Kosovo police in Gnjilane, Shaban Azizi.

Members of the Kosovo police arrested today, around 11.30, on the Partes-Gnjilane way, a group of Russian journalists, RTV Puls reported.

Arrested persons are Juri Georgievich, journalist from Latvia, Robion Denisov and his wife Vera, both from Estonia.

Kosovo police representative for Gnjilane region, Shaban Azizi confirmed the arrest.

“The police had brought in a group of foreign citizens. Scanning the reasons for their stay in Kosovo is underway,” Azizi said to RTV Puls.

Serbian Government Office for Kosovo Director, Marko Djuric requested today immediate release of a group of Russian and Serbian citizens arrested near Podujevo.

Djuric said their release is intentionally postponed under the excuse that the court has too much work to do, to be able to deal with their case.

“I want to emphasise that a pregnant woman and an underage person are among arrested, which makes this unnecessary mistreatment of the Serbian and Russian citizens even more inhuman,” Djuric said.