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Monday, 09 September 2002

KYRGYZ OFFICIAL WOUNDED IN GRENADE ATTACK

Published in News Digest

By empty (9/9/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Security Council Secretary and acting presidential administration head Misir Ashyrkulov received multiple, but not life-threatening injuries when unidentified assailants threw three grenades at his automobile as he was approaching his home late on 6 September, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. Presidential aide Bolot Djanuzakov told journalists the following day that the attack was a politically motivated terrorist act, according to Reuters. Speaking in Moscow on 7 September, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Askar Aitmatov said it is hard to say who might have tried to kill Ashyrkulov and why.
Security Council Secretary and acting presidential administration head Misir Ashyrkulov received multiple, but not life-threatening injuries when unidentified assailants threw three grenades at his automobile as he was approaching his home late on 6 September, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. Presidential aide Bolot Djanuzakov told journalists the following day that the attack was a politically motivated terrorist act, according to Reuters. Speaking in Moscow on 7 September, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Askar Aitmatov said it is hard to say who might have tried to kill Ashyrkulov and why. Ashyrkulov himself told journalists from his hospital bed that religious extremists might have been responsible. RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau quoted Human Rights Movement of Kyrgyzstan Chairman Tursunbek Akunov as saying that Ashyrkulov may have incurred the disapproval of other senior Kyrgyz officials by his recent efforts to promote reconciliation between the authorities and the opposition. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an opposition figure similarly suggested to Reuters that "it looks like internal bickering" within the government. He also suggested that the banned Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir might have been responsible. (RFE/RL)
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