MINSK – Police in Belarus carried out spot checks on roads and at stations and airports yesterday after a bomb blast tore through a crowded metro station in the capital, Minsk, killing at least 12 people.
As police hunted those responsible for planting and detonating the bomb on Monday evening by remote control, a senior official from the prosecutor general’s office described the attack as an act of terrorism, unprecedented in Belarus.
The KGB state security service issued the description of a heavily-built man of medium height in his 20s, who it said was a suspect in the attack. Three other people had been detained for questioning but were not suspects, the KGB chief said.
The former Soviet republic of 10 million people is heavily policed and, though the bombing resembled similar attacks in Russia, it has no Islamic insurgency problem and there is no history of political violence against the state.
President Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic leader who has led Belarus since 1994, said the explosion was an attempt to destabilise the country.
“This is the first time we are encountering such a manifestation of terrorism,” deputy prosecutor-general Andrei Shved was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
The defence ministry said 204 people were in hospital, 26 of them in a serious condition, after the rush-hour blast at Oktyabrskaya station, one of Minsk’s busiest underground rail junctions, close to the presidential headquarters.
The explosive device, which had been packed with metal ball bearings, nails and bolts and had a strength equivalent to 5kg to 7kg (11lbs to 15.4lbs) of TNT, had apparently been left under a platform bench.
The head of the KGB said several theories of the motives for the attack were being studied. They included an attempt to create panic and destabilise the country, an attack carried out by “radical, extremist youth organisations” or even a “contract” killing, chief Vadim Zaytsev said. – (Reuters)