Uzbekistan: Government Commission Forms to Investigate Likely Terrorist Blast

Army Sgt. Michael Reinsch, IJC Public Affairs)

Train on track from Uzbekistan to just beyond Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, 2010

Two days after an explosion on the rail line near the Uzbek-Afghan border, the Uzbek state media is finally making an announcement about the incident, likely a terrorist attack.

A government commission has been formed to investigate the explosion on the Termez-Kurgan-Tyube rail line, "for the purposes of determining the reasons and conditions for the crime committed," according to Uzbekistan's state newspapers and the pro-government site gazeta.uz. There were no casualties according to official reports.

The explosion too place in the south of Surkhandarya region, near the Uzbek-Afghan border and not from from the border with Tajikistan.

The semi-official website uzmetronom.com, which often gets leaks from Uzbekistan's power ministries, says an official announcement of the explosion only appeared in the government and parliament newspapers today.

Uzmetronom.com didn't have much more to add to the official announcement, except that the Interior Ministry held an emergency session on the 17th and that their main version of events is that it was a terrorist act.

The Russian daily news service regnum.ru also waited two days to report the Russian Railways announcement of November 17 that tickets would not be sold from Galaba to Amuzang because the line was closed, and also that tickets on the Moscow-Kulyab line would not be sold for Amuzang and Kulyab because "the supports for the rail bridge had been destroyed."

The rail line Termez-Kurgan-Tyube-Yavan is 264 kilometers, says regnum.ru (or 218 kilometers, according to podrobno.uz) and links the southern region of Tajikistan with neighboring foreign countries.