One Person Killed in an Explosion in the Tajikistan Capital Dushanbe

EXPLOSION ROCKS TAJIK CAPITAL

An early-morning explosion, on November 14, 2007, damaged a government building complex in the center of the Tajik capital Dushanbe and killed at least one person, RFE/RL's Tajik Service and ITAR-TASS reported.

The explosion targeted the building housing the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party and killed a nearby street cleaner in the blast.

The site is located near the Uzbek Embassy and only a few hundred meters form the presidential palace. The complex was to host a conference attended by Deputy Prime Minister Aqil Aqilov later in the day.

Tajik police launched an immediate investigation, saying that the bombing is being treated as "an act of terrorism," the Avesta website reported. RG

http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/tajikistan/hypermail/news/0006.shtml

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More:

There has been a powerful explosion outside the building of the "Kokhi
Vahdat" State Complex in the center of Dushanbe near the Avesta Hotel at
around 08:00 this morning. One person has been killed by this
explosion.

The blast blew the windows of the Complex and nearby buildings.

A guard/cleaner found a package and it blew up in his hands and he was killed.

Two meetings were scheduled to take place today at Kokhi Vahdat:

The 1st Regional Consultative Meeting for Disaster Risk Reduction in
Central Asia at 09:00. Central Asian Emergency Ministers and a number
of international organizations, including the UN, were scheduled to
attend.

This meeting has been postponed and as of this writing we have no
further information.

Also 7th Sitting of the CIS Commission on Illegal Migration, with the
participation Ministry of Interior Officials from nine CIS countries.

This meetings was moved to the Grand Asia Hotel in Dushanbe.

Explosion near Tajik presidential palace

Wed Nov 14, 2007, 2:34 AM ET

Associated Press, DUSHANBE, Tajikistan -

An explosion Wednesday at the Tajik presidential palace killed a guard in what officials called a terror attack.

The explosion occurred when a guard touched a plastic bag left outside the palace, which was to host an international conference sponsored by the European Union on dealing with consequences of natural disasters.

"We consider it a terror attack," said Kurbanali Mukhabbatov, the chief prosecutor of the Tajik capital. He wouldn't comment on the type of the explosive device or give any further details.

President Emomali Rakhmon was in the Khudzhand region in northern Tajikistan on Wednesday for ceremonies marking his ascent to power in the ex-Soviet nation 15 years ago.

Rakhmon's secular government fought a five-year civil war against mostly Islamic opposition — a war that killed 100,000 people and made Tajikistan one of the poorest countries in the world. The war ended in 1997 with a U.N.-brokered power-sharing deal.

As part of the peace deal, several prominent opposition figures joined the government, but Rakhmon later consolidated his grip on power, sidelining the Islamic opposition.

Background:

EURASIA INSIGHT TAJIK GOVERNMENT KEEPING LID ON CAR-BOMBING DETAILS 2/02/05

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After some initial confusion, Tajik authorities now uniformly describe recent car bomb blast in central Dushanbe as a terrorist act. Officials indicate that a banned Islamic radical group is a prime suspect in the explosion, but they have produced no evidence to back their assertions.

With parliamentary elections scheduled for February 27, authorities have bolstered security in the capital. First Deputy Interior Minister Abdurakhim Kakhorov announced that police officers in Dushanbe had been put on a heightened level of alert, adding that authorities had increased the number of checkpoints in and around the city.

In the hours following the January 31 car-bombing outside the Ministry for Emergency Situations, officials gave conflicting explanations for the incident. Conflicting information also surrounded a fire the same day at the Security Ministry’s compound. While some government representatives immediately admitted that the bombing was the likely work of terrorists, others suggested that the explosion was an accident. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Now officials readily admit the blast was intentional.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the car-bombing, but authorities are fixing their attention on Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a banned organization that has agitated for the overthrow of regional governments and the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Central Asia. The car’s driver, identified as 38-year-old Dushanbe resident Makhmadnozim Murodov, was the only person reported to be killed in the blast. Authorities reportedly have yet to determine whether he was an unwitting victim or a suicide bomber.

At an emergency meeting of the country’s National Security Council, top Tajik leaders reportedly agreed to try to keep information concerning both the blast and the ensuing investigation under wraps out of a desire to keep potential destabilization to a minimum during the final weeks of the parliamentary election campaign.

A United Nations official in Dushanbe, Vladimir Sotirov, described the bombing as "an undoubtedly alarming phenomenon," but went on to express the belief that the incident had "no connection with the forthcoming parliamentary election, or the entire political situation in the country," the Itar-Tass news agency reported February 1. Sotirov added that investigators should be "given the opportunity to say their word" about the incident.

The evidence pointing to Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s involvement is circumstantial at best, and is based primarily on the fact that Hizb is the only known Islamic radical organization to be operating in Tajikistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The day before the car-bombing two Hizb activists were taken into custody in the town of Gafurov after authorities discovered anti-government leaflets and other printed materials in their apartments.

To date, the leaders of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a transnational organization that maintains its headquarters in London, have advocated the use of non-violent tactics. No Central Asian government has been able to establish a clear link tying the organization, which operates clandestinely in the region, to a terrorist act. At the same time, experts have detected signs that some elements within Hizb have grown frustrated with the non-violent approach, raising the possibility of the formation of a violent splinter group. Uzbekistan’s leader, Islam Karimov, blamed Hizb for terrorist incidents in Tashkent in 2004, but authorities offered no information to substantiate the claim. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Some Tajik officials believe radical Hizb adherents could have possibly established ties with al Qaeda operatives. In a video distributed recently in neighboring Afghanistan, al Qaeda adherents threatened to carry out attacks in Tajikistan.

In a statement issued in London, Hizb adamantly denied involvement in the car-bombing. "Hizb-ut-Tahrir does not engage in terrorism, violence and armed struggle and is an Islamic intellectual and political entity that seeks to change people’s thoughts through intelligent discussion and debate," said the February 2 statement.

Tajikistan is the only nation in Central Asia in which a religious party – the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) -- participates openly in the country’s political life. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Some political analysts in Dushanbe say the government’s prevailing tendency to blame Islamic radicals for the car-bombing could end up damaging the IRP’s image, and thus hamper its performance at the polls at the end of February. The IRP is one the main opposition political parties in Tajikistan.

As with the car-bombing, authorities remain tight-lipped on the cause of the Security Ministry fire. Authorities attributed the blaze, which gutted the ministry’s cafeteria and conference hall and caused damage to a communication room, to a short circuit of electrical wiring. However, investigators have reportedly not discounted the possibility of arson. Some political observers in Dushanbe have expressed surprise that a supposedly accidental fire could cause such extensive damage in such a tightly monitored facility.

Posted February 2, 2005 http://www.eurasianet.org

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