Police: Taraz suicide bomber was acting alone

Taraz oblast police denies that 34-year-old Maksat Kariyev who killed 7 people last Saturday, including 5 officers of law-enforcement authorities, was acting with accomplices, KazTAG reports. “He was acting alone all the time. We recorded his whole route. We questioned all the people who saw him or whom he hijacked cars from. He was wearing a noticeable coverall, blue with a strip. We even know where he got this coverall from. So, he was not very different from other people by his look,” deputy head of investigation department of Interior Department of Zhambyl oblast Marat Kozhayev said. He noted that this fact is confirmed by video surveillance cameras that recorded the criminal in the blue coverall, as well as the testimonies of the witnesses, whom he hijacked cars from. “Initially there was a taxi driver in a car with the criminal. He tied him up and drove the car for some time and then left it,” Kozhayev said. Kozhayev did not confirm the information that appeared on the Internet that Kariyev had accomplices who left the crime site with guns and weapons heading towards Karatau village. “It is not true. There was no accomplices on Mercedes next to the criminal. There were no accomplices in the areas where he moved,” the speaker said. At the same time Kozhayev did not fully deny that Kariyev could have some accomplices who helped him prepare. “We are not denying yet that he could have accomplices who probably helped him to get the guns. We are currently investigating where the criminal got the grenade launcher from. But the active part of the attack was made by him alone,” he said. As for the personality of the criminal, Kozhayev said that he was unemployed and drank a lot of alcohol. “Despite of his supposedly adherence to jihadism, he used to drink alcohol a lot, which is confirmed by witnesses. People say that he also used to swear a lot,” Kozhayev said. Earlier Tengrinews.kz English reported that 7 people were killed during the terrorist attck in Taraz, including 3 policemen and 2 officers of the National Security Commission. 34-year-old Maksat Kariyev, who, as per the General Prosecusion office, was a jihadist, committed several heavy crimes in Taraz on November 12. Kariyev made an armed assault killing two officers of the National Security Committee who were on outdoor surveillance mission tracking Kariyev. Earlier, at about 11 in the morning, he had assaulted an owner of Mazda 626 car Mr. Zakirov: threatening him with a gun he took possession of his car. At 11:35 a.m. Kariyev made an armed assault on an arms shop killing the shop’s guard Mr. Fedorchenko and mortally wounding the shops occasional visitor N. E. Orazbasov. He took two guns (Saiga and CZ) and some rounds from the shop. Then he took possession of VAZ 21099 car killing two special security officers: police sergeants P.K. Ayamkulov and J. A. Baiseitov. He took their service weapons: Kalashnikov gun and Makarov gun. Besides, he drove to the regional Department of the National Security Committee and made one shot from the grenade launcher and several bursts from the automatic weapons aiming at the walls and windows of the building. The shots caused no victims of destructions. On his way away from the shooting site at 12:45 a.m. Kariyev wounded two officers of mounted patrol. At about 1:00 p.m. the criminal was wounded and apprehended by officers of road police battalion. During the attempt to neutralize him Kariyev blew himself up killing the commander of the platoon Captain G. Baitason on the spot. A criminal case on terrorism and murder charges has been initiated. Special interdepartmental investigation group led by the Minister of Internal Affairs is investigating the incident.