A day after the 52-year-old former Muslim cleric and leader of the rebel province Chechnya died in a bomb attack in a stadium in the capital Grozny on Sunday, thousands of mourners headed to his hometown of Tsentoroi to pay their final tributes. The Interfax news agency said police posts were set up every 100 meters along the 200-kilometer long highway crossing Chechnya from east to west to provide security for guests arriving from neighboring provinces to attend the three-day funeral ceremonies.

"Kadyrov's death has left a political vacuum in Chechnya," Russian parliamentary deputy Ramazan Abdulatipov told Ekho Moskvy radio. "It turns out that there is no one to pick up his banner," he said.

A top target for terrorists

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Sunday which exploded at a ceremony celebrating the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany and killed at least six others, but suspicion falls on the Chechen separatists, who have been fighting for independence from Moscow since the mid-1990's. Kadyrov has long been a top target for the rebels and has survived several assassination attempts.

A former rebel leader who later turned pro-Kremlin, Kadyrov was the political figure entrusted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to put an end to nearly ten years of separatist war in Chechnya. As such he was particularly hated by the pro-separatist factions, who regarded him as a turncoat and a puppet of Moscow. His death is now being viewed as a blow to Moscow's efforts to restore stability in the region.

Putin has already vowed to avenge the attack, saying "justice will take the upper hand and retribution is inevitable for terrorists." In televised remarks, he also called Kadyrov a "heroic person" who demonstrated the difference between "bandits, terrorists and the Chechen people" -- a distinction Putin strives to make between those in Chechnya who support Russia and those who continue to fight for independence from Moscow.

From rebel to president

Kadyrov was a man who embodied the changes Putin hoped to force upon the break-away region. During the first Chechnya war (1994-96), Kadyrov rose to a position of mufti, the spiritual head of the Muslim community and proclaimed a holy war or Jihad against Russia. But when Russian forces withdrew and the region regained a sense of independence, Kadyrov became disenchanted with other rebel leaders, blaming them for over-reliance on foreign help. He broke with Aslan Maskhadov, who had been elected Chechen president in 1997.

When war broke out again in 1999, Kadyrov sided with Russia and was soon appointed head of the Moscow-installed administration by Putin, who sought to minimize Russia's military involvement in Chechnya and encourage Chechens to solve their own problems. Kadyrov proved to be an ideal instrument. He stayed loyal and managed to persuade many rebel commanders and rank-and-file fighters to lay down their arms, primarily through force and scare tactics. His son Ramzan headed up the powerful and much-feared military which has been accused of being behind civilian disappearances and extrajudicial killings of unrepentant rebels.

Last October Kadyrov was elected president in a vote widely criticized by the international community as fraudulent. News reports say that Russian officials pledged a new presidential election would be held within four months, as stipulated in the country's constitution. In the meantime, Prime Minister Sergei Abramov -- another pro-Kremlin figure, will act as president.