Vladikavkaz, Russia ? The masked men drive up in cars without license plates. In full view of witnesses, they seize their prey, shove him in the car and speed off. Weeks pass, then months — the victim isn’t heard from again.

That has happened more than 40 times this year alone in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, say human rights groups that are demanding answers to the rising wave of abductions. Officials say almost nothing in response.

Ingushetia, smaller than Rhode Island with a population of about 300,000, is a tiny fragment of the restive Caucasus region. Its president, Murat Zyazikov, has promoted it as a place of prosperity and stability, in contrast to its neighbor, Chechnya.

But the kidnappings have become a grim echo of the fear that grips Chechnya, where the forces fighting separatist rebels allegedly abduct civilians with impunity. Tens of thousands of Chechens have fled to Ingushetia, hoping to escape such abuses.

Now “the same thing that’s been happening in Chechnya is happening in Ingushetia: abductions and killings,” said Usam Baysayev of the Memorial human rights group’s office in Nazran.

Although the Chechen war occasionally has spilled into Ingushetia and Russian officials believe that rebels take shelter there, the wave of kidnappings has no obvious connection with the war.

The victims are Ingush, not Chechen, and there is no obvious pattern as to who is seized. Young and old, rich and poor, politically connected and intensely private people — all have gone missing.

Experts say they suspect the victims’ probable destination is Chechnya — specifically Khankala, the base of Moscow’s Federal Security Service or FSB, the main successor agency of the KGB. Zyazikov, the Ingush president, is a former high official in the FSB.

Keeping prisoners in pits is a widespread practice in the Caucasus, employed by bandits, rebels and even soldiers.

One Ingush victim was Timur Yandiyev, a systems administrator for the Internet provider in Nazran.

“We found out from traffic police that the car went to Chechnya,” said his brother Marat. He said the car was stopped at a checkpoint “but they flashed FSB passes, and our traffic police don’t have the right to inspect their cars.”

Regional law enforcement agencies and the Russian Prosecutor General’s office refused to comment on the abductions to The Associated Press other than to say an investigation into one abduction was under way.