9 Terrorists Killed, 4 Seized While Planting Bomb in Uzbekistan

TASHKENT - Nine terrorists were killed and four were detained while planting a bomb in the Romitansky district of Uzbekistan on Monday. About tonne of explosives --- mixture of saltpetre and aluminium powder was confiscated, Uzbek Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov told Itar-Tass.

As many as 19 people were killed in the terrorist acts in Uzbekistan, Uzbek Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov told Itar-Tass on Monday. One child and six policemen were killed. Twenty-six people received various wounds and were brought to hospitals in the Uzbek capital. “Their life is out of danger,” the prosecutor’s general emphasized.

On Monday, several terrorist acts were carried out in Uzbekistan --- in the Uzbek capital and the Bukhara district.

According to unofficial information, at least five people were killed in the Uzbek capital in the two blasts, up to 30 blast victims were brought to the first Tashkent city hospital. A female suicide bomber set off an explosive device fixed on her body at the Chorsu marketplace near the entrance to the three-story shop Detski Mir (“Children’s World”). There were luckily few visitors in the morning.

Terrorists exploded while trying to plant a powerful bomb in the Romitantsky district of the Bukhara region. The rest of them who remained alive were detained. Possible accomplices of terrorists are being established during the investigation.

Several explosions also went off in Bukhara on Monday, spokesman for the Uzbek Foreign Ministry Elkhom Zakirov told Itar-Tass in Tashkent. According to him, the blasts went off in various places of the city. No victims have been reported so far.

The Uzbek prosecutor general’s office instituted criminal proceedings in relation to the explosions in Tashkent and Bukhara under the article that deals with terrorism. Security measures were tightened in the republic.

The previous terrorist acts in Tashkent were carried out on February 16, 1999 five years ago. Twenty people were killed in the terrorist acts. The Islamic movement of Uzbekistan assumed responsibility for these terrorist acts. It is included in the list of 15 organisations that Russia recognised terrorist organisations.

Experts believe that the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan that has links with the terrorist network Al-Qaeda may also be behind the terrorist acts carried out in Uzbekistan on Monday. According to deputy director of the Institute of Orientalism of the Russian Academy of Sciences Doctor of Historical Sciences Anatoly Yegorin, “the terrorist acts in the Uzbek cities look like the similar actions of other Al-Qaeda structures.” Female suicide bombers are used, explosions are staged in crowded places in order to claim the maximum possible number of victims and metallic striking elements are applied in explosive devices. “Their perpetrators obviously had the same teachers and the same textbooks,” the expert emphasised. He linked the actions of terrorists with the spring opening of passes “and first of all on the Tajik direction.”

In connection with the Monday terrorist acts in Uzbekistan Kazakhstan steps up control on the Kazakh-Uzbek capital. The press service of the National Security Committee to which the Kazakh Border Service is subordinate noted that the republic should step up protection of the state border for the fight with terrorism. “It is certainly a logic step of any state,” security service staffers noted.

The Uzbek Interior Ministry detained 11 people on suspicions of preparing the terrorist acts on Monday. In particular, resident of the town Toitep, 40 kilometres off Tashkent Furkat Yusupov was arrested Monday while trying to bring ten self-made explosive devices in the Uzbek capital, Uzbek Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov said on Monday.

There are no Russian citizens among 19 victims of the terrorist acts in the Uzbek capital and other cities of the republic, Russian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Farit Mukhametshin told Itar-Tass on Monday.