DUSHANBE, December 31, 2013, Asia-Plus — Tajik national Rahmonali Ghoziyev, 42, who sustained serious injuries in an explosion that rocked a train station in the Russian city of Volgograd on December 29, died in Volgograd city hospital # 25 today morning, bringing the number of Tajik nationals killed by Sunday’s blast to two, Ibrohim Ahmadov, a spokesman for the Tajik migration service agency’s office in the Russian Federation, told Asia-Plus by phone.
We will recall that the Tajik migration service agency’s office in Russia reported yesterday that one Tajik national was killed and one other seriously injured by the December 29 blast in Volgograd.
Another Tajik national killed by the December 29 blast was identified as Toshpulat Nazarov, 53, from the city of Tursunzoda.
Representative of the Tajik migration service agency’s office in Russia is currently in Volgograd to specify the number of Tajik nationals affected by the Volgograd blast, the source said.
Russia officials say a suicide attack on a train station in Volgograd has killed 17 people. About 40 people are said to have been injured, including a nine-year-old girl whose mother was killed in the attack.
Sunday”s explosion reportedly rocked Volgograd-1 station at around 12:45. The explosion shattered windows and sent debris and plumes of smoke from the station entrance.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, but a spokesman for Russia”s Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said the incident was being treated as an act of terrorism.
According to him, the bomb used in the attack contained 10 kg of TNT, was rigged with shrapnel and was detonated near the metal detectors at the station entrance.
Initial official claims that the bomber was a lone woman have been replaced with uncertainty about who carried it out, with suggestions the bomber could have been a man or that there could have been multiple bombers.
BBC News reports that President Vladimir Putin has ordered security to be tightened at railway stations and airports across Russia. Moscow is concerned militant groups could be ramping up violence in the run-up to the 2014 winter Olympic Games in the city of Sochi in six weeks.
