ASTANA. Oct 13 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) - A Kazakh citizen was involved in the terrorist attack in Tashkent in summer 2004, said Chairman of the Kazakh National Security Committee Nartai Dutbayev.
"Askhan Shuyusupov, a Kazakh citizen and a resident of the city of Taraz, was directly involved in the Tashkent terrorist attack. This is a proven fact. Unfortunately, it took our Uzbek counterparts a long time to inform us about this," Dutbayev said in an interview published in the Wednesday issue of the Kazakh newspaper Liter.
He said he personally led a team of Kazakh experts working in Tashkent.
"Specialists determined by fingerprint patterns that the corpse of a suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Uzbek capital is what remained of Shuyusupov," Dutbayev said.
On July 30, suicide bombers perpetrated a series of explosions near the Prosecutor General's Office and the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Tashkent. The attacks killed seven people, including three terrorists themselves, and wounded seven others. Among those killed were Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service officers.
In August, the Kazakh National Security Committee officially announced that it had initiated criminal cases into the Tashkent terrorist attacks.
"Investigative agencies opened criminal cases against several people," the committee's press service reported at the time.
"In line with the law and in order to observe confidentiality of the investigation, detailed information will be reported after the investigation has been completed," it said.
The press service made the statement in response to requests that the National Security Committee comment on reports that a Kazakh citizen was among the suicide bombers.