MINISTER'S ASSASSINATION, BOMB BLAST CAST PALL OVER TAJIK INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS

Tajikistan's Minister of Culture Abdurahim Rahimov was shot dead outside his home in Dushanbe early on 8 September by a lone gunman who then escaped. It was the third such killing of a senior government official so far this year. Law-enforcement officials described the shooting as "a terrorist act," while President Imomali Rakhmonov condemned the unknown perpetrators as "enemies of the Tajik people." On 9 September a young man was killed when a homemade bomb he was carrying exploded some 500-1,000 meters away from a stadium in Dushanbe where Rakhmonov and other senior officials were attending festivities to mark the 10th anniversary of Tajikistan's independence. (RFE/RL)