Pity the fishermen. Authorities in Tajikistan have found a new way to defuse potential car bombs. Unable to open a suspicious vehicle, police in Khujand dumped the whole thing in the river, ca-news.org reports.
Two suspicious passenger cars with homemade bombs were discovered in the city of Khujand near the buildings of the Interior Affairs Directorate and the State Committee of National Security. The force of one of the explosive devices was estimated as equivalent to six kilograms of TNT. The second car proved impossible to open, so a decision was made to sink it in the Syr Darya.
Submerging the vehicle, which was retrieved January 24, just happens to destroy evidence, an unidentified official said without providing details: “We cannot say what the exact volume was of the explosives found in the car because they became waterlogged.”
Tajikistan faces small car bomb attacks from time to time. They often coincide with crackdowns on alleged Islamic militants. But let’s be gracious: The authorities in Khujand probably had no other way to deal with the potential threat. Maybe Uzbekistan, which lies downstream from its neighbor and regularly throws fits about any activities upstream, would be interested in providing some bomb-disposal training.
David Trilling is Eurasianet’s managing editor.
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