Who Was Behind the Dushanbe Bomb?
Who Was Behind the Dushanbe Bomb?
NBCentralAsia experts are divided on whether the explosion in in Dushanbe ahead of the tenth anniversary of the 1997 peace deal was the work of political extremists.
A bomb containing the equivalent of 200 grams of TNT was set off near the Supreme Court building in Dushanbe on June 16. Although no one was hurt and the building was only slightly damaged, the authorities are treating the investigation as an act of terrorism.
The capital’s prosecutor Kurbonali Muhabbatov said the bomb was probably set off “with the aim of intimidation”, although he noted that “the criminals chose a time when no one was around.”
The explosion happened on the eve of preparations to mark the tenth anniversary of the treaty signed on June 27, 1997, ending five years of civil war.
Several hours before the attack, judges had been inside the court taking advice on how to implement a new law on ceremonies and traditions but they were long gone by the time the explosion happened.
This is not the first such incident in Dushanbe. In January 2005, a car bomb exploded near the ministry for emergency situations, and another bomb went off a few months later. Both attacks, in which one person died and several others were injured, were blamed on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
On June 16 last year, three small explosions went off near government buildings in the city centre, but the authorities say wayward teenagers were responsible.
Hikmatullo Saifullozoda, head of the information and analysis centre of the Islamic Rebirth Party, does not believe the latest bomb was a terrorist attack at all.
“Practice shows that terrorist attacks can’t be of such a ‘merciful’ nature. The consequences of a terrorist attack are always large-scale with significant destruction and some casualties,” he said.
Saifullozoda believes the explosion was most probably set off in protest against the legal system and the biased decisions often made in court.
Abdugani Mamadazimov, head of the executive committee of the Association of Political Scientists, agrees, saying that those behind the attack could be a group who want to change the direction of a civil court case in which their business interests are at stake.
Mamadazimov completely rules out a political motive, “even taking account of the fact that the explosion happened ahead of National Unity Day”.
But political scientist Parviz Mullojanov says this attack is “clearly a provocation” and could well have been timed to coincide with the anniversary.
According to this scenario, the people behind the explosion wanted to “provoke distrust among the political forces that signed the peace treaty 10 years ago”. He believes it could be the work of foreign extremist groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
A bomb containing the equivalent of 200 grams of TNT was set off near the Supreme Court building in Dushanbe on June 16. Although no one was hurt and the building was only slightly damaged, the authorities are treating the investigation as an act of terrorism.
The capital’s prosecutor Kurbonali Muhabbatov said the bomb was probably set off “with the aim of intimidation”, although he noted that “the criminals chose a time when no one was around.”
The explosion happened on the eve of preparations to mark the tenth anniversary of the treaty signed on June 27, 1997, ending five years of civil war.
Several hours before the attack, judges had been inside the court taking advice on how to implement a new law on ceremonies and traditions but they were long gone by the time the explosion happened.
This is not the first such incident in Dushanbe. In January 2005, a car bomb exploded near the ministry for emergency situations, and another bomb went off a few months later. Both attacks, in which one person died and several others were injured, were blamed on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
On June 16 last year, three small explosions went off near government buildings in the city centre, but the authorities say wayward teenagers were responsible.
Hikmatullo Saifullozoda, head of the information and analysis centre of the Islamic Rebirth Party, does not believe the latest bomb was a terrorist attack at all.
“Practice shows that terrorist attacks can’t be of such a ‘merciful’ nature. The consequences of a terrorist attack are always large-scale with significant destruction and some casualties,” he said.
Saifullozoda believes the explosion was most probably set off in protest against the legal system and the biased decisions often made in court.
Abdugani Mamadazimov, head of the executive committee of the Association of Political Scientists, agrees, saying that those behind the attack could be a group who want to change the direction of a civil court case in which their business interests are at stake.
Mamadazimov completely rules out a political motive, “even taking account of the fact that the explosion happened ahead of National Unity Day”.
But political scientist Parviz Mullojanov says this attack is “clearly a provocation” and could well have been timed to coincide with the anniversary.
According to this scenario, the people behind the explosion wanted to “provoke distrust among the political forces that signed the peace treaty 10 years ago”. He believes it could be the work of foreign extremist groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
