Caravanserai
Terrorism

Uzbekistan is ready to rebuff terrorist attacks

By Maksim Yeniseyev

A Tashkent sign banning the entry of large trucks downtown is shown July 26. The rule is meant to prevent truck bombings. [Maksim Yeniseyev]

A Tashkent sign banning the entry of large trucks downtown is shown July 26. The rule is meant to prevent truck bombings. [Maksim Yeniseyev]

TASHKENT -- Uzbekistanis horrified by terrorist attacks abroad are vowing to prevent a similar occurrence in their country.

Uzbekistani authorities have taken steps to prevent terrorism. They include prohibiting large trucks from going downtown and regulating firearms.

Terrorists struck in Nice, France, July 14, and in Almaty July 18, causing sympathy and outrage in Uzbekistan.

Ordinary Uzbekistanis grieving over a terrorist truck driver's slaying of 84 people in Nice brought flowers to the French embassy in Tashkent and posted their condolences on the embassy's Facebook page.

"We condemn these inhuman terrorist acts," Aziz Mukhitdinov posted. "We grieve with France."

"I can't find the words," Anvar Turdiyev wrote.

"I was shocked by what happened in Nice," Tashkent resident Andrei Ten, who was visiting France during the Nice terrorist attack, told Caravanserai.

Security measures

Uzbekistanis hope to prevent similar atrocities and have taken measures over the years.

"In Uzbekistan, [large] trucks are prohibited from going downtown," Sherzod Melikulov of the Tashkent traffic police told Caravanserai. "Such measures have been introduced gradually since the terrorist bombings in 1999 in Tashkent."

Smaller trucks are permitted, so that merchants and others who need shipments can receive them. The cut-off is 3,500kg.

The Almaty terrorist attack of July 18, in which a gunman killed eight people before police arrested a suspect, shocked Uzbekistan too and felt much closer to home, inevitably. The countries border each other. The gunman killed an Uzbekistani woman visitor.

"The criminal approached a car and shot the woman inside it, who was an Uzbekistani citizen," Kazakhstani Interior Minister Kalmukhanbet Kassymov told Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev. "He stole the car."

The suspect, Ruslan Kulikbayev of Kazakhstan, is in custody.

Uzbekistanis have tight restrictions on acquiring firearms, in hopes of preventing such mass shootings.

"Only hunting and sporting weapons may be bought in Uzbekistan," Sergei Minenko, a Tashkent hunter, told Caravanserai. "We have very strict rules on importing and storing them."

One year ago, the government also tightened regulations on air guns, he said.

Among Uzbekistani private citizens, "only professional ... and amateur hunters" may own a weapon, Interior Ministry (MVD) spokesman Samvel Petrosyan told Caravanserai.

The hunters have to store their weapons in special, double-locked safes mounted in the wall of their residence and have to register with the MVD, Petrosyan said.

Uzbekistanis who break rules on the purchase, carriageand storage of firearms face imprisonment of two to five years. Those who violate rules on the sale of weapons and ammunition could be sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison.

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Glory to Allah - our security is in reliable hands. May God grant a long life to our president.

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