DUSHANBE, January 15, Asia-Plus — Investigation into two last year’s blasts in Dushanbe – outside the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex (November 14) and near the Supreme Court building (June 16) – is still under way, Prosecutor-General Bobojon Bobokhonov remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 14.
According to him, both cases are being investigated by the State Committee for National Security (GKNB), and “investigators still have operational data that should be proved.”
“I hope the cases will be solved soon,” the chief prosecutor said. However, he further added that it could not be ruled that such cases may being investigated for years.
We will recall that an early-morning explosion on November 14 damaged a building of the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex and killed at least one person. Tajik police launched an immediate investigation, saying that the bombing is being treated as an act of terrorism.
An explosion on June 16 struck the Tajik Supreme Court building. No one was hurt in the blast, although windows were shattered and a part of the structure was damaged. Investigators linked the incident to a series of explosions in January and June 2005 that Tajik authorities have attributed to a banned group known as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service cited Avesta website as saying that Savriddin Toshev, a judge in a Dushanbe district court, on December 7, 2007 identified two men suspected of carrying out the June bombing near the Supreme Court building. Toshev that two men, Uzbek citizen Hasan Simirkhanov and Tajik citizen Komiljon Eshonqulov, are being investigated by GKNB. Both are currently jailed for other offenses.
