Tajikistan’s government on Tuesday accused a banned Islamist party of being behind an attack which killed four tourists from the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Citing what it said was the confession of a detained suspect, Tajikistan’s interior ministry said in a statement that the attackers’ leader had been trained in Iran and the group planned to flee to Afghanistan after the attack.
Four Western cyclists were killed when a car ploughed into them on a rural road on Sunday after which the attackers also stabbed their victims, Tajikistan’s interior minister and the US embassy said on Monday.
Four tourists, including two Americans, were killed in Tajikistan by armed attackers in what was originally reported as a hit-and-run road accident. Pictured, the scene after the attack
The attack on Sunday left tourists from the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands dead and two others injured, the interior ministry said
The victims, two Americans, a Swiss and Dutch citizen, were struck by a car while on a popular cycle route in the Danghara district, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital Dushanbe.
Another cyclist with the group, a French citizen, escaped without injury and had been questioned by police, he added.
The Dutch foreign ministry said one of the dead tourists was a 56-year-old man who was cycling the route with his 58-year-old partner, without providing names.
A Belgian cyclist who said he arrived at the scene after the attack told Flemish broadcaster VRT that he saw ‘several cyclists on the ground. Some were completely shocked’.
The dead were on a cycling tour in the impoverished ex-Soviet nation when the car rammed into them. Pictured, the bikes after the attack
‘When I asked what had happened, the first thing someone said was that they had been hit by a car and that the people who had come out had started stabbing them with knives,’ cyclist Nicolas Moerman said.
Security forces killed four suspected attackers on Monday and detained one.
Among the dead suspects was 21-year-old Jafariddin Yusufov, the owner of the Daewoo Leganza car that struck the tourists on Sunday afternoon, local officials said.
‘(The suspects) had knives and firearms,’ said interior minister Ramazon Hamro Rahimzoda, adding that two other cyclists, Swiss and Dutch nationals, were injured and hospitalised.
The attack took place in the district of Danghara in Tajikistan, 90 miles south of the capital Dushanbe
‘One tourist received a knife wound and is being given medical assistance. The victim’s condition is stable,’ said Rahimzoda, without mentioning a nationality.
In Tuesday’s statement, the interior ministry said it had detained four more people suspected of being linked to the attackers.
Jafariddin Yusufov, a suspect in the case and the owner of the Daewoo Leganza that struck the tourists, was killed
The Dushanbe government banned the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) in 2015, accusing it of plotting a failed coup.
Party leaders who now live in exile have denied the charges and said the move against them aimed to consolidate President Imomali Rakhmon’s grip on power.
Earlier on Tuesday, IRPT expressed condolences to the families and nations of the victims and said it hoped the investigation would ‘not only refute rumours and assumptions’, but also help Tajikistan regain trust in the eyes of foreigners.
Separately, Islamic State on Monday claimed responsibility for the attack which was originally reported as a hit-and-run road accident.
In a statement, ISIS said that a ‘detachment from the soldiers of the Caliphate’ had carried out the attack against ‘citizens of Crusader coalition countries,’ according to intelligence monitor SITE.
However, the jihadist group did not provide further detail or evidence for its claim.
Three of those originally on the wanted list and then reported killed included Asomiddin Madzhidov (pictured)
Zafarjon Safarov (pictured) was also among the list of suspects who was killed